


Welcome to the Hotel of Despair

by Pancake_Prince



Category: Borderlands (Video Games), DCU, Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel), Kill la Kill (Anime & Manga), Persona 5, Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Again, Angst, Crossover, F/M, Gen, I'm Sorry, Murder Mystery, On Hiatus, Post-Killing School Life (Dangan Ronpa), major spoilers for every fandom listed, minor dickbabs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-05-29 10:23:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 74,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15071153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pancake_Prince/pseuds/Pancake_Prince
Summary: With a job he liked, a decent apartment in a city where people were slowly becoming more open to the idea of vigilantism and a badass superhero girlfriend, life was finally getting a sense of normality for Dick Grayson. That is, until he wakes up trapped in a hotel with 15 other people and a mechanical bear with a taste for sadism.Forced to make-do with his new surroundings, he is given a choice; live out his days in the hotel until he dies, or disrupt the peace by killing another guest.





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little warning beforehand: within this fic, some heavy topics are going to come up which may be triggering for some. I did not tag them and probably won't tage them to avoid spoilers for the fic.
> 
> For those of you who wish to keep the suspense and away from spoilers, I would advise that you avoid looking at comments, because I don't want to censor anyone. Anyway, with that out of the way, I hope you enjoy what I have in store!

Byakuya Togami sets the file he was reading down on his desk once he’s skimmed through the most important details. He looks up to the man in front of his desk who was awaiting an answer, “Naegi, you can’t expect me to take this report seriously?”

Makoto Naegi sighs and picks the file up off his desk, “I know, the likelihood that there’s any Remnants of Despair left is seriously low, but last time we overlooked something like this the Future Foundation was almost wiped out. I mean who else would be hiding out all the way in the North Pole?”

Togami raises an eyebrow, “if I remember correctly, it was the former Remnants of Despair who saved us in the first place. Besides, I doubt any one of us would try to hide the existence of such an individual… Still…” he trails off and reaches for his phone. He dials for the one person he knew would immediately answer his call.

The person on the other side answers his call by the end of the first ring, and Togami gives his command immediately, “I’m sending a team to you. They’ll take you to the North Pole where you’ll investigate the source of some strange signals we’ve been receiving.”

“S-should I t-take N-N-Naegi with me?” Naegi hears the trembling voice of Toko Fukawa on the other side. He assumes she was talking about his sister and shakes his head.

“Tell her that won’t be necessary. Kirigiri said she wanted to go with the team as well, and I don’t think Komaru would enjoy a trip that far north,” Naegi informs him. Togami briefly considers arguing, but he knew that trying to stop the detective would only result in her bypassing him to have her own way.

Togami sighs and fixes his glasses before speaking into the phone, “No. Kirigiri will be accompanying you. Play nice with her and I might reconsider moving you closer to my division.”

“You w-would-?!” Fukawa asks gleefully, but she’s cut off.

Togami hangs up on her without providing an answer, and looks to Naegi, “Are you happy now?”

* * *

Dick Grayson’s hand taps around his bedside table in search of his ringing phone. Once he finds it, he brings it closer to his face and tries to pick it up, only to realise that it’s an alarm he set the night before. He turns it off and groans into his pillow.

“Rise and shine sleepy head,” he hears a girl saying from his bedroom door.

Dick whines in return, “Why? I’ve got the day off, you only start work in the afternoon and you told the team you wouldn’t be in today so…,” he sits up and reaches out for the red-head at his door, “come on Babs, come back to bed.”

Barbara Gordon smiles, “or, counterproposal, you climb out of bed and help me make breakfast?”

Dick turns back around and groans into his pillow once more. Babs chuckles and shakes her head, “Fine, you can have ten more minutes, and I’ll make breakfast. But you owe me one, Grayson.”

“Thank you,” Dick mutters, half asleep. He barely notices what he tells her, “Love you.”

If Barbara replies, he doesn’t hear it as he falls into a deep sleep.

* * *

Tiny Tina opens up her garage door when she’s finished making the missiles the vault hunters had commissioned from her, “meet my fine ladies,” she shows the girl in front of her, “What the- hey! Hey! Where’d all ya friends go?”

“Huh?” Gaige the Mechromancer asks, “Oh yeah, uh, Lilith said she wanted us to take care of a train in uh…” she looks around and points out of Tiny Tina’s cave, “that direction, so I’m here to pick up the missiles.”

“Oh,” Tina replies, a little disappointed that no one else was there to see her missiles. She shrugs, “Welp, here ya go. Just tell me when you get there. I need to stay and deploy them from here, ‘kay? Till then...” she skips back to her bed and plops head first onto it, “Nap time!”

* * *

Crow stands at the back of the room while the rest of the Phantom Thieves discuss strategy for Niijima’s Palace. He considers joining in, but the dirty looks he was getting from Skull and Oracle made him second guess that. Of course, it made sense. They were the most hesitant when it came to him joining the Phantom Thieves temporarily after blackmailing them. Instead, to his surprise he’s joined by Panther.

“You know, if you want to help us catch the man in the black mask then you should probably join in on the strategy talk.”

He folds his arms, “It’s simple, is it not? All that we must do is reach the managers floor and retrieve the treasure, correct?”

“Yeah, but we need to figure out who’s free and when. We can’t exactly do all of this in one day.”

Crow rolls his eyes, “Very well, if you insist, Panther.”

* * *

“Lady Satsuki, not that I’m doubting you but… why do the naturals elections now?” Uzu Sanageyama asks the woman sitting at the chair at the back of the room.

She sips on her tea calmly and hands the empty cup to her butler once she’s done, “There have been some… complications. The REVOCS corporation has been moving far faster than I had anticipated, and so it is necessary to re-evaluate the social standings of Honoji Academy. On top of which, Matoi has been defeating Two-Stars left and right now that she knows how to wear kamui Senketsu.”

Ira Gamagoori speaks up from the other side of the room, “How would you like us to proceed?”

“Do what you wish for this coming week, but make sure to come out on top by the end of it,” Satsuki Kiryuuin commands them, “I have no use for someone with weak resolve.”

* * *

Artemis Crock jumps back when one of Poison Ivy’s vines try to hit her. She’s almost hit by a different one, but Rose Wilson runs to her side and slices one of them off, “Watch out, Tigress!”

“Thanks,” she nods to her, “Guess you’re not really such a newbie after all,” She shoots at a vine behind her with her crossbow, “Come on, let’s take her down.”

Rose turns around and looks up to where Poison Ivy had been attacking them from, “Hope you have a plan for that. I don’t exactly see an easy way out of this one.”

Artemis smirks, “You’ve got enhanced reflexes, yeah?”

Rose nods, and quickly understands her suggestion, “I’ll distract her as much as I can. Good luck.”

“You too.”

* * *

“You want to rid them of all hope and fill them with despair, right?”

“Why? You got a way to do it? I’ve tried everything in the book, so you better have something good lined up.”

“Have you heard of the killing school life?”

“…”

“Well?”

“…I’m listening.”

“It was a game designed to fill the students of Hope’s Peak Academy full of despair by having them kill one another. In the past its driven even the most innocent kids to murder so I know that it works, but I need your help. Together we could show everyone that even Ultimate Hope can be crushed.”

“Ultimate Hope? Killing game? Huh… and I thought this was all just a bad joke.”

“This is no joke. All I want to do is continue the legacy that Junko Enoshima has created, and together we can fill entire universes with despair. But, there are some rules even you have to follow.”

“Hmmm… Well whatever, this’ll work too. Just show me how this whole thing works, then we can get down to business.”

* * *

Dick scrambles out of bed when he realises just how much he’d overslept. Without even reaching for his phone, he grabs a regular black t-shirt, jeans and blue jumper before walking out of his room, “Crap Babs, I’m really sorry I-,”

He stops when he finally starts paying attention and looks up. Noticing his surroundings, he finds himself in a long corridor with about eight doors on each side of it. He’d definitely never been here before, and yet it felt strangely familiar.

The door across from him had a plaque on it, with a name written in Kanji, and before he could read it, the door opened.

“Do… do I know you?” A man with brown hair, brown jacket and black gloves asks the moment he notices Dick, “You don’t appear as though you know what is going on either.”

Dick shakes his head silently. He glances back into his room, and everything else looked like his regular bedroom from his apartment in Blüdhaven, save for the lack of Barbara’s things in there and his missing phone on the bedside table. He turns back and looks to him, “This isn’t your house, is it?”

The man shakes his head, “Unfortunately no, although, my room appears to be in the same state as I left it this morning,” he puts a hand to his chin in thought, “Although, the fact that this room looks identical to mine does not necessarily mean that it is indeed my room… oh,” he looks back up, “I’m Goro Akechi, by the way.”

“Dick Grayson, but you can just call me Dick,” he replies and closes his door, “You’re right though. These are just copies of our rooms, not the originals. So, question is, why go to such lengths of copying rooms if their objective is to kidnap us?”

Akechi shakes his head, “there’s more to this. We shouldn’t ask ourselves why, but rather who is capable of such a feat in the first place,” he looks up and down the corridor, “perhaps we should look and see if anyone else is around. If we find out who the rest of these rooms belong to, we may find out more about our culprit.”

Without waiting around, Akechi turns left and walks down the corridor, Dick choosing to follow him. They enter what appeared to be a lavish dining hall. It rivalled that of the dining hall at Wayne Manor, with a chandelier hanging over a long table, a fireplace at one end of the room, a bar, wooden floor panels and portraits lining the walls. The only things out of place were the portraits, which mocked famous paintings by having a white and black bear instead of a person, and the monitor above the fireplace.

“About time someone else showed up,” He hears a familiar woman’s voice coming from the other side of the hall. He turns around and sees Artemis at the other end of the room standing next to a brown-haired man in a suit, a blonde man in a suit with glasses who was looking down at some kind of tablet, and a red-headed girl with a notebook and pen in her hand, “If I had to guess, you two know as much as we do about this place.”

The blonde man fixes his glasses and looks up from the tablet, “That would presumably be the case for everyone else who arrives here. Do any of you remember what you were doing prior to waking up here?”

Akechi shakes his head, “Last thing I remember is getting to my apartment… however I’m certain I locked it and I would have remembered if someone broke in to kidnap me.”

“I was in bed myself,” the red headed girl informs them.

Dick nods, “So was I.”

“I was in the med bay with Rose,” Artemis says.

Akechi puts a hand to his chin again in thought, “Then it would appear that we were all near a bed when we lost our memories. That must have been when we were kidnapped. Have any of found an exit?”

“Togami says we shouldn’t even bother,” Artemis points to the blonde man, then to the boarded-up windows, “I tried pulling those off, but we’re sealed in.”

The longer the discussion continues, the more people make their way into the dining hall. The last person to enter the room is Dick’s girlfriend, Babs, but before he even gets the chance to talk to her, the monitor above the fireplace switches on. At first, there’s nothing but static, but soon enough the outline of a teddy bear shows up, until the picture clears up.

The same bear as shown on the portraits shows up on the screen. The bear was half white and half black, with a red eye on his black side. It clears its throat before speaking in a high-pitched tone.

“Attention! Attention! Would all guests please move to the lobby?”

Akechi looks around the room, expecting someone to move first. When no one does, he’s the first to speak up, “I suppose we should find out what this is about. Shall we proceed?”

The brown-haired man in the suit shakes his head, “its Monokuma… if we’re locked in here then it only means one thing.”

“This is yet another killing game,” Togami finishes for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have way too many things queued and things I'm halfway through something else I’m writing which is exactly why I decided to start on my newest, most ambitious project of the lot, aka a massive Danganronpa crossover!
> 
> For those of you unfamiliar with the killing game, all will be explained soon, but yes this is a murder mystery fic! As such, I will not be replying to any comments in case I end up accidentally spoiling something.


	2. Checking In

“K-killing game?” Ryuji Sakamoto blurts out loudly and storms over to the two men in the suits, “Don’t joke around like that!”

Naegi once again shakes his head, “it’s not a joke… look, if you don’t believe him then head over to the lobby. I’m sure that Monokuma has some sort of speech prepared already.”

Togami brushes past Sakamoto on his way out of the room. He puts a hand on the doorframe and looks back to everyone, “he doesn’t particularly enjoy waiting as I recall. Unfortunately, while we are trapped here it’s best to follow that wretched bears orders.”

Without further discussion, the group makes their way out from the dining hall and into the lobby. At the end of the lobby stands a large, wooden door, and over to the side, a smaller set of red double doors. Dick looks back to Artemis, ready to ask her if she tried that door, however she shakes her head back to him before he gets the chance, having predicted his question.

“So where is this teddy bear?” Sakamoto asks, and is if on cue, Monokuma makes his appearance by jumping out from behind the reception desk and sitting on it.

“I am not a teddy bear!” Monokuma shouts and jumps onto his feet, “My name is Monokuma! And from this day forward, I will be making sure that everyone in this hotel gets along and lives out the rest of their stay in peace!”

Everyone apart from Naegi and Togami raise their eyebrows. The two remaining people are unconvinced and they stand as far away from the bear as possible.

“The rest of our stay you say?” Satsuki Kiryuuin speaks up, “Do you truly believe you can contain us?”

Monokuma laughs, holding onto his belly, “Upupupupu! Why of course I do! Because if you look in your pockets, you’ll find all the rules for our communal life! Leaving the premise without my permission is strictly prohibited, and if you break that or any of the other rules then a special punishment awaits you!”

Just as everyone else, Dick reaches into his pocket and finds a small device that reminded him of a tablet. He thinks back to his first encounter with Togami and remembers that he was holding an identical device at the time. When he starts it up, the only thing that appears at first are the words ‘Ultimate Acrobat.’ Before he can ask, a blond girl with pigtails speaks first.

“Ultimate Fashionista? What’s that supposed to mean?” Ann Takamaki asks.

“Each one of you has an e-handbook that only belongs to you,” Monokuma begins his explanation, “And since I can’t remember all of your names, I’ve decided to label them each by your talents! So, you get the title of Ultimate Fashionista,” he looks the girl up and down, humming, “You remind me of this other fashionista… what was her name...? Oh well, can’t remember her now! Anyway, follow my rules and you can all live here in peace.”

Tiny Tina pockets her own handbook, “what if we got better things to do then livin’ here? I got places to be, people to blow up!”

To Dick’s surprise, only half the room give the 13-year-old girl some questioning looks, but Monokuma is willing to entertain her question without hesitation.

“Well of course there is one way out of here. To get the keys to the front doors, you just gotta kill somebody and make sure no one catches you doin’ it!” Monokuma laughs once more

Uzu Sanageyama, remaining silent till now, steps forward, “how the hell is that peaceful living?!”

“Well, if you don’t kill each other, its peaceful!” Monokuma replies.

Ira Gamagoori folds his arms, “Then it’s simple. No one kills, and we live here.”

“What if we run out of food?” Gaige the Mechromancer asks.

“Plenty of food for you all here!” Monokuma reassures her, “That being said, I know everything about each one of ya. I know all the little dirty secrets you people have, all the reasons you’ve got to get back to your lives… you might think communal living is easy now… I give it three days tops till someone’s fuses blow and one of you dies! Not to mention, half of you have already killed someone before, so what’s to stop you now?”

Remaining calm, Pamela Isley reads out from her e-handbook, “Rule #13, in the event that the true host of the killing hotel life is identified correctly, all surviving guests will be automatically checked out of the hotel and the host will be punished. However, if the guests wrongly identify the true host, all remaining guests will be punished,” she looks up from her e-handbook, “Then this is yet another way for us to leave, yes?”

Monokuma nods, “Absolutely! This is a fair game after all, so it makes sense that I’m part of it too!”

With that, Monokuma jumps back behind the reception desk. A couple of people run over, but by then, he’s nowhere to be seen. Instead, another monitor on the wall lights up, showing Monokuma once more, “Oh and one more thing, to make this easier on you all, I’ve left all of your weapons behind in storage! Have fun!”

Akechi smirks, “We all have someone here that knows us, no? It would be foolish of us to try and kill each other with our weapons, or even anyone else’s for that matter. Framing someone that way would be far too obvious.”

Monika raises an eyebrow, “Do you really think that someone here will try to kill someone else?”

Akechi points to the monitor, “If there are killers amongst us as he has suggested, then yes.”

“And if he was just lying to rile us up?” Rose Wilson asks.

Akechi shakes head, “I doubt he was lying. And if that is the case, he was right about one thing. Each of us probably has a secret that we would kill over to keep hidden or a reason for which a prolonged stay in this hotel isn’t favourable.”

Barbara Gordon folds her arms, “Are you suggesting you’ve got a secret big enough to kill for, or a reason you need to get out of here as soon as possible?”

“That is what that bear implied for everyone concerned, wouldn’t you agree?” Akechi smirks and makes his way out of the lobby.

Sakamoto calls out after him but it’s all for naught. Dick puts a hand on his shoulder, “Leave him. Getting into arguments now is just going to make things worse.”

Artemis walks over to him from the reception desk, “Then what do you think we should do?”

Kiryuuin interrupts Dick as he’s about to make a suggestion, “We’ll find the storage room and lock it up.”

Gaige smirks, “So what? No debate?”

“Lady Satsuki is right. Sanageyama and I will search the dining hall for something to use. You’re coming with us,” Gamagoori points to Gaige.

“Eh, not like I’d disagree on either point anyway.”

Dick nods, “Takamaki, Naegi and Rose, the four of us should search elsewhere.”

“Why these four in particular?” Togami asks, and Dick promptly explains.

“If we’re gonna be forced to live together, we should try getting to know each other.”

Kiryuuin hums positively, “I agree. Which is why I’m going to search for and guard the storage room with Crock and Togami until we find a way to lock it,” she turns directly to him, “tell us as much as you can about the killing game.”

While Togami reluctantly joins Kiryuuin and Artemis on their search, Monika, Tiny Tina, Barbara, Sakamoto and Pamela are the only ones left.

Pamela looks to the group and pulls Barbara and Tiny Tina away from the other two, “We’ll look around the bedrooms. You two… make yourselves useful in some way or another.”

Monika glances over to Sakamoto and offers him a smile, “The first floor of this hotel is really the only place we can access right now, so maybe we could just go look for your friend?”

Sakamoto’s eyes widen, and he lifts his hands defensively, “Oh... oh no, no, no, no, no, Akechi is not my friend!”

Monika tilts her head, “in that case what would you call him?”

“An annoyance,” Sakamoto mutters. He thinks over her suggestion before sighing, “but you’re probably right, we should go look for him before that bastard decides to pull something on us.”

Monika raises an eyebrow, “You don’t trust him?”

Sakamoto shakes his head, “He blackmailed me and my friends into helping him, not to mention he’s a liar and an asshole. I don’t think he’s gonna kill any of us, but he’s definitely planning something sketchy.”

* * *

While investigating the dining hall, Gaige pulls on a long curtain hanging by one of the boarded-up windows, “maybe this’ll work?” When it doesn’t tear, she releases it and places her robotic arm on it. With one swift pull, the curtain tears off and falls to the ground. Sanageyama turns around and grins.

“Damn, that was just your one arm?” Sanageyama asks, and nods respectfully, “What’s your ability? Ultimate Strongwoman?”

Gamagoori folds his arms, “Under any other circumstances, I would have to berate you for destruction of property, but since we are here against our will… I agree with Sanageyama.”

Gaige grins wildly, and pretends to flex her robotic arm, “nah, I’m the Ultimate Engineer. I built this arm myself. Used to be able to summon this awesome robot from it… it was supposed to stop bullying but it kinda killed my classmate so…” she trails off and tries to pick up the curtain.

“Woah, wait,” Sanageyama pauses, “You killed someone?”

“By accident!” Gaige reassures him, but then she looks away, “Well, my classmate was… after that I kinda started getting chased down by the Hyperion Corporation and became the most wanted criminal in the galaxy and ended up killing a whole bunch of buttheads that tried to kill me… All I’m gonna say is that I didn’t kill anyone that didn’t try to kill me first.”

Gamagoori looks out of the room, then back inside, “Then you won’t kill anyone here.”

Gaige shakes her head, ”Nah, probably not,” she manages to roll up the curtain so that it no longer dangles by her feet and swiftly changes the topic, “So, what are your abilities?”

Sanageyama pulls out the bamboo sword he had sheathed on his back, “Take a guess,” he smirks.

“Ultimate Swordsguy, got it,” Gaige replies, and looks to Gamagoori, “What are you? Ultimate Ripped Dude?”

Gamagoori pumps his fist, “I am the Ultimate Moral Compass!”

A silence falls over the room, and a couple of seconds later, Sanageyama and Gaige burst into laughter.

“That’s not a real ability!” Gaige manages to say between her cackling.

Sanageyama grabs his stomach, “Oh no, it’s totally an ability for him. Though I probably would have gone with Ultimate Hardass!”

Gamagoori folds his arms once more, and stands proud, “Ultimate Moral Compass is a noble title. Its far superior to Ultimate Swordsman! Any fool can swing around a sword.”

Sanageyama suddenly stops laughing, and narrows his eyes, “Oh yeah? You wanna bet on that old man?”

“Old man?! You’re only two years younger than me!” Gamagoori argues back, “Don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because you’re blind!”

“Woah!” Gaige steps in between them and holds out her free arm to stop them from fighting, “Much as I love a good brawl, there’s a time and place guys! Also, you’re blind?!” Gaige looks over to Sanageyama, “How’d you know that I used one arm to tear down a curtain?”

Sanageyama puts his sword back in his sheathe and removes the tie off his eyes, revealing his sewn-shut eyes, “I asked for this myself to make up for my reckless actions. Like this, I’ve been able to heighten all of my other senses and use those to see what’s happening around me.”

“Huh,” Gaige replies, “neat. Anyway, let’s go block up that door, yeah?”

Gamagoori stands down and nods approvingly, “You go on ahead, we’ll stay here and look for anything else that may be useful for us.”

Gaige hesitates a little at first, but she finally decides to follow Gamagoori’s orders and leaves the room. Once she’s out of ear shot, Sanageyama speaks up.

“How old would you say she is?”

“Fourteen, fifteen maybe,” Gamagoori replies, looking towards the door, “She’s not the youngest here, but what kind of world does she live in to be a wanted criminal at fourteen?”

* * *

Kiryuuin opens the double doors of the storage area with surprising gusto, but neither Artemis nor Togami flinch. The three of them narrow their eyes when inside they find the one missing individual from their group, “Fool. Are you trying to make us suspect you from the very beginning?”

Akechi crouches down and picks up some sort of visor. He stands back up and smirks, “I assume you’re here so that no one will be able to access these weapons. Although I can already tell you that your attempts are futile,” he throws the visor in her direction, and she catches it immediately.

She doesn’t even look at it, instead passing it back to Artemis who examines the object more closely, “Is that feeble attempt at a threat supposed to scare me? I assure you, it will take more than empty words to weaken my resolve.”

Akechi shakes his threat, “read into it however you wish, but I was not threatening you,” he points to the visor, “That belongs to a notorious criminal I’ve come to refer to as the Black Mask. With his abilities, he has killed multiple high-ranking individuals across Shibuya, but he has yet to leave any trace of evidence behind. The police has no idea that such an individual exists.”

Togami takes the piece from Artemis and looks it over himself, “If the police don’t know about his existence then how do you know he does exist? Furthermore, the only way you could know that this belongs to him would be if you had seen him before.”

Akechi nods, “He tried to kill me once, but I managed to escape.”

Artemis, not believing any of this, raises her eyebrow, “Didn’t you just say he kills high ranking people? What makes you so special?”

“I am the Ultimate Detective, or so my e-handbook likes to call me. In truth, I am nothing more than a rookie detective who got lucky and happened to arrive to the right place at the wrong time,” Akechi explains.

“Enough of the exposition, Akechi,” Kiryuuin says, “What are you trying to get at with this? Do you think the Black Mask is amongst us?”

“It’s certainly a possibility, yes,” Akechi nods, “However, I have reason to believe that the visor is a fake, just as the rest of these weapons. Do any of you recognise any of these objects as your own?”

The three of them glance around the room, and eventually Artemis walks over to a crossbow which she picks up, “This looks like my bow but… Akechi’s right, it’s not the same one I use. The design is the same but it’s way lighter. How did you know?” She looks over to him.

“Because of this,” He picks up the hilt of a sabre, and with the push of a button, the blade lights up, just like a lightsabre, “This lightsabre belongs to me, but in the real world, it is nothing more than a children’s toy.”

“I’m… not even going to ask why you’ve got that,” Artemis puts down the crossbow, “but why have a costume here? It’s not a weapon.”

This time, Togami steps in before Akechi can answer, “Because if he’s a serial killer then that costume might just be part of his ritual. It could be that without it, he can’t kill, so it’s as much of a weapon to him as the rest of these weapons are to anyone else,” he turns back to Akechi, “So what you’re saying is that as long as there’s a serial killer amongst us, someone will die.”

Akechi nods in response, and walks past them, towards the exit, “As long as we’re lead to believe that one of us will kill another then yes. Unless we can all be completely truthful with one another, I do believe that someone will die. I don’t know about you, but there are some secrets that I am unwilling to share, even amongst a group of people I have never met.”

Once Akechi leaves, whether he can hear her, Artemis doesn’t bother hiding her disdain for him, “He really is the Ultimate Asshole, huh?”

Togami fixes his glasses, “Ultimate Asshole or not, he does have a point. All the killing games in the past were based on lies and deceit. It wouldn’t be out of place for that to be the case here as well. After all, it is every man for himself.”

* * *

“Right, so what have we found?” Dick asks as soon as everyone gets back from exploring the hotel. Everyone except for Togami sits at the table, while he stands by one of the windows, arms folded.

“Monika and I checked out the kitchen,” Sakamoto starts things off, “there’s all kinds of stuff there, loads of food, equipment, and everything’s super clean. They’ve got pretty much everything here… There was a ventilation shaft but before we could check it out Monokuma told us it was full of traps and stuff.”

Monika confirms, “I threw a rag up there just to be sure… when it came back down it was on fire and parts of it were torn off,” she pulls out the rag from underneath the table to show everyone, although without her saying that it was a rag, it was hard to tell what the object was due to the state it was in, “So no escape that way. But at least we won’t starve to death.”

Pamela is the next to speak up, arms folded, and eyes shut, “I have no contact to the outside world. I thought I could call on mother nature to break us out of this hotel, but it was of no use.”

“Oh, I found the laundry room! But I couldn’t really find much to make a bomb either,” Tiny Tina sighs, “Can’t blow us outta here either.”

Barbara rolls her eyes, “well, while chaotic neutrals over there tried to get us out, I had a look around the rooms. I was able to lock my room using my e-handbook, so I’m guessing everyone else can do the same for theirs. Monokuma wouldn’t let me into any of the guys rooms though, saying it was unladylike or something. But he did tell me that the rooms are soundproof so that, and I quote, ‘you can murder away without any pesky interruptions’.”

“Yeah, he said something similar about the library,” Naegi informs them, “At the end of the hall there’s a really big library, but it’s all either detective stories, books for dummies or books to help you commit murder.”

“There was one entirely about evidence disposal,” Rose adds, “One of them was even about the advantages and disadvantages of different poisons. There were a few medical books too. Monokuma said they were there cos they’d probably come in useful to us if no one knows first aid.”

Takamaki finishes up their investigation, “Apparently the libraries also soundproofed so that you can read in peace, especially since there’s a pool next door. We couldn’t have a proper look at it though since we weren’t allowed in unless we wore the provided swimwear. There’s no changing rooms so apparently, we can only change in our rooms. There are lockers for towels and stuff though, but you need you e-handbook to open it. Probably works like the doors here,” she looks over to Kiryuuin, Togami and Artemis, “Did you lock the storage room?”

Kiryuuin shakes her head, “With Gaige’s, Sanageyama’s and Gamagoori’s help we were able to find some material. We used that to tie the door handles together. It’s still possible for someone to cut the material to get inside if they wished to, but it would be clear that someone tried to get inside.”

“We… well, Akechi actually discovered that all of the weapons in there are replicas,” Artemis continues, “But he also thinks there’s a serial killer amongst us.”

At that moment, Akechi turns to Takamaki and Sakamoto, “I believe that the man in the Black Mask, the true culprit, is here.”

“No way!” Takamaki gasps, “you think he set this up?”

Akechi shakes his head, “No, if that were the case then I doubt that he would be foolish enough to leave such a large clue as his costume here. I think one of us is the Black Mask.”

“But…” Sakamoto trails off, “Well, we’re the only ones from Shibuya, right? Wouldn’t that limit it to the three of us?”

Akechi shakes his head, “Not necessarily. As we know, anyone could have access to the Metaverse. On top of that, it is not required that you be within a certain range of an individual to travel to a Palace, or to Mementos. Anyone here could have knowledge of that world.”

“I’m sorry, Metaverse?” Dick asks, interrupting the three.

“It’s… complicated,” Takamaki winces when she fails to come up with a quick explanation. Akechi once again steps in to explain.

“Assume that it is a separate world that only certain people may access. Amongst those people are myself, Takamaki, Sakamoto and of course, the Black Mask. Takamaki, Sakamoto and myself were working on stopping that culprit before we were brought here. However, I believe that whoever is behind this has also brought the Black Mask here. Unfortunately, in this hotel it would be difficult to pursue him. On the other hand, since we are not in the Metaverse then perhaps he is as helpless as we are.”

“So, you don’t think he’ll be that much of a threat?” Dick asks.

Artemis raises an eyebrow, “that’s not what you were saying earlier.”

“He’s saying, we should be cautious,” Togami steps in before another argument starts up, “But we should also not go on a witch hunt trying to find this fiend.”

Akechi nods, “while I do believe that death is inevitable in this scenario, I am of the opinion that if we limit possible arguments then we are more likely to get along.

After that, no one has anything left to say and a silence falls over the group. Eventually, Gaige breaks the silence.

“So, what now?”

No one answers immediately, and Dick looks over to Naegi, “You’ve done this before, right?”

Naegi sighs, “Yeah, and I know that if none of us kills the other within the next couple of days, Monokuma’s gonna get bored and give us all a motive. That can be anything, a video of your loved ones dying, incentive, the possibility of having your secrets revealed… there is hope though. We just gotta figure out who’s controlling Monokuma, right?”

Artemis nods, “Yeah, but if we get it wrong then we all die.”

“He may slip up,” Kiryuuin suggests, “For now however, discussing that matter is pointless. We don’t have enough evidence against him, or anything that would point to a possible culprit.”

_***Ding dong, bing bong*** _

A bell chimes from the speakers of the monitor in the room, and the screen switches on, showing Monokuma, “Attention all guests! It is now 10 PM, and as such, it is officially night time. As such, the guests must remain quiet when moving through the halls. Okay, sweet dreams everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the beg bugs bite!”

Rose raises an eyebrow at the announcement, “what did he mean by staying quiet in the halls?”

Gamagoori pulls out his e-handbook and looks through the rules, “’Rule #2: "Night time" is from 10 pm to 7 am. All guests should remain respectful and stay quiet when other guests are sleeping.’” He reads out loud.

“I guess it’s fine then as long as no one’s sleeping,” Barbara points out the loophole, then looks over to the camera, “Hey Monokuma, I’ve got a question for you.”

As soon as his name is called our, Monokuma suddenly appears from underneath the table, “Why of course! I’m happy to answer anything as long as it’s not too personal!”

“What if we find a body in the middle of the night? Does that rule still apply?” Barbara asks, “It would be unfair if one person had to stay quiet all night because of it, right?”

Monokuma mulls over the question, and eventually pulls out something resembling his own e-handbook. Instead of using his paws, he takes out a pen and scribbles on the touchscreen while growling. Despite it not doing anything to the e-handbook itself, everyone else’s handbook beeps at the update, “There! Ya happy now?!”

Gamagoori reads the updated rule, “Rule #15: In the event that a body is discovered by anyone except for the killer, the night time rules will not apply throughout the duration of the investigation.”

“Great! Now go to sleep!” Monokuma disappears behind the table once again.

Once he’s gone, Togami sighs, “as much as I hate following that bears orders, I’ll be making my way over to my bedroom.”

Dick nods, agreeing, “It’s been a long day, I think it’s best if we all try to get a good night’s rest.”

“We will reconvene here in the morning,” Kiryuuin commands them, and once everyone agrees, everyone except Dick and Barbara leave the room.

Barbara continues to sit at the dining table and investigates her e-handbook, while Dick watches her from the other end of the table, “You’re not going?” He asks her, and she shakes her head.

“Not yet. I’m not actually that tired so I thought I’d do some investigating of my own. I mean hey,” she lifts up her e-handbook and shows her title to Dick, “I’m the Ultimate Librarian and there’s a library here. It’s not much, but there might be something there.”

“Right…” He walks over to the door but stops just before leaving, “We’re… we’ll be fine, right Babs?”

She doesn’t reply at first, but when he turns around, she’s smiling at him,

“Of course, Boy Wonder, we’ve gotten out of worse situations than this after all.”

* * *

 **Rule #1** : Guests may reside only within the hotel. Leaving the building is strictly prohibited.

 **Rule #2** : "Night time" is from 10 pm to 7 am. All guests should remain respectful and stay quiet when other guests are sleeping.

 **Rule #3** : Sleeping anywhere other than the hotel rooms is strictly prohibited.

 **Rule #4** : With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the Despair Hotel at your discretion.

 **Rule #5** : Violence against host Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction and alteration of surveillance cameras.

 **Rule #6** : Anyone who kills a fellow guest and becomes "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered.

 **Rule #7** : Additional hotel regulations may be added if necessary.

 **Rule #7** : Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving guests.

 **Rule #8** : If the guilty party is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.

 **Rule #9** : If the guilty party is not exposed, they alone will check out of the hotel, and all remaining guests will be executed.

 **Rule #10** : Lending your e-Handbook to another guest is strictly prohibited.

 **Rule #11** : The guilty party may only kill a maximum of two people during any single "Killing Game."

 **Rule #12** : Attempting to break into locked rooms is strictly prohibited.

 **Rule #13** : In the event that the true host of the killing hotel life is identified correctly, all surviving guests will be automatically checked out of the hotel and the host will be punished. However, if the guests wrongly identify the true host, all remaining guests will be punished.

 **Rule #14** : Once a body is discovered by three or more guests, the body discovery announcement will be played.

 **Rule #15** : In the event that a body is discovered by anyone except for the killer, the night time rules will not apply throughout the duration of the investigation.


	3. Love Breaks All Boundaries- Daily Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuck in the hotel, the guests slowly adjust to their new life and try to live peacefully. However, as always, Monokuma has a little something that should help disrupt their daily life.

**Ann Takamaki-** Ultimate Fashionista

 **Artemis Crock-** Ultimate Archer

 **Barbara Gordon-** Ultimate Librarian

 **Byakuya Togami** \- Ultimate Affluent Progeny

 **Dick Grayson** \- Ultimate Acrobat

 **Gaige the Mechromancer** \- Ultimate Engineer

 **Goro Akech** i- Ultimate Detective

 **Ira Gamagoori** \- Ultimate Moral Compass

 **Makoto Naegi-** Ultimate Lucky Student

 **Monika** \- Ultimate Poet

 **Pamela Isley** \- Ultimate Botanist

 **Tiny Tina** \- Ultimate Demolitionist

 **Rose Wilson** \- Ultimate Dual-Wielder

 **Ryuji Sakamoto** \- Ultimate Sprinter

 **Satsuki Kiryuuin** \- Ultimate Leader

 **Uzu Sanageyama** \- Ultimate Swordsman

* * *

The next day, after taking a shower, getting dressed and brushing his teeth, Dick leaves for the dining hall. He enters and finds that about half of the group was already there. At one end of the table, Kiryuuin drinks tea, with Gamagoori sitting next to her eating breakfast. Two seats away, Artemis sits, reading one of the murder mystery books from the library, while Akechi sits across from her doing the same.

Another two seats down was Monika who appeared to be writing something in her notepad, with a cupcake and tea pushed away to make space for the notepad. At the other end of the table, Rose and Naegi talk to each other with breakfast food in front of them.

Dick decides to join Monika, and pulls up a chair next to her, “this seat taken?”

Monika closes her notepad and looks up. She smiles when she sees that it’s Dick and motions for him to sit down, “You’re welcome to sit here if you’d like,” she reaches for her cupcake and takes a bite. While Dick sits down, she chews and swallows the cupcake. She appears perplexed, until she finally makes a decision, “No, my friends cupcakes are much better than this one… though it’s very fresh, so I wonder where Monokuma could have gotten it from.”

Dick chuckles, “You seem pretty traught.”

“Traught?” Monika asks for clarification.

“Uh… Oh right. Well, you know how dislike is the opposite of like? Well, traught is just the opposite of distraught. It just means you’re pretty calm about all of this,” He’s caught off guard, not having to explain his odd mannerisms when it comes to the English language, but Monika seems to get a hold of it quickly.

“I see, you make up your own words to better show how you feel,” Monika takes another bite out of her cupcake, chews, and swallows, “that’s quite creative of you. I may borrow that one some time.”

“Borrow?”

Monika sets down the cupcake and reaches for her notepad. She pushes it closer to Dick, “I’m part of a literature club, although recently I’ve developed a love for writing poetry. It helps me get my thoughts and feelings out. That might be why I’m considered as the Ultimate Poet here.”

Dick picks up the notepad and flips through it. He comes across the last poem in the book, one that he assumed Monika had been working on all along, “Were you working on this one earlier?”

“Oh, hahaha,” Monika laughs sweetly, “That’s my most recent one. It’s not very good, and still kind of a work in progress. I’m writing it for a friend. I just hope I can show it to him one day.”

Dick nods, “Yeah, we’ll find a way out of here. I promise, you’ll show your poem to your friend soon.”

Monika smiles gently, “Thank you… that makes me feel somewhat better about all of this. I might be… traught on the outside, but this whole situation is a bit disconcerting…” she trails off, looking away, but when she notices Dick watching her, she turns back to him, “go on, read it. I’d like to know what you think.”

“Very well.”

****

**_Hole in Wall_ **

_It couldn't have been me._

_See, the direction the spackle protrudes._

_A noisy neighbor? An angry boyfriend? I'll never know. I wasn't home._

_I peer inside for a clue._

_No! I can't see. I reel, blind, like a film left out in the sun._

_But it's too late. My retinas._

_Already scorched with a permanent copy of the meaningless image._

_It's just a little hole. It wasn't too bright._

_It was too deep._

_Stretching forever into everything._

_A hole of infinite choices._

_I realize now, that I wasn't looking in._

_I was looking out._

_And he, on the other side, was looking in._

Dick looks back over to Monika once he’s done, “Well, I get the feeling that it’s pretty personal between you and your friend. Maybe how you met? I’m not sure, I’m not great with poetry to be honest.”

Monika shakes her head, “You’re right, it is personal, and to be honest I didn’t expect you or anyone else here to understand it but… do you like it?”

“It’s good, and I’m sure your friend will really like it, yeah,” he passes the notepad back to her, “Oh, actually now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve introduced myself. I’m Dick Grayson,” he holds out his hand, and Monika shakes it.

“I’m Monika,” she replies.

“Just Monika?” he asks, given how he gave her his last name.

“Just Monika,” she confirms, “So, I’ve told you my special ability, what’s yours? Anything we can use to get out of here?”

“Hmm? Oh, I’m the Ultimate Acrobat. Which would help if the ventilations shafts didn’t make for the worst Takeshi’s Castle segment.”

Monika laughs at the comparison, and the two easily fall into casual conversation. Soon after that, the rest of the group come in one at a time. Eventually, everyone is seated at the table, and Babs takes a seat next to Dick.

He barely notices when she taps on his knee to pass him a note, but after some nudging, he takes the scrap paper from her and reads it underneath the table

‘Meet me in the library after breakfast. Keep your distance. Bring her with you.’

He hides the message in his jeans pocket, and stands up, “Well, I’m gonna grab something from the kitchen. Anyone else coming with?”

* * *

Dick leaves the dining hall, and first heads over to his room. If Babs was being this secretive it could only mean that she was doing something she didn’t want Monokuma to know about. He walks into the ensuite bathroom, crumples up the scrap piece of paper and throws it into the toilet. He makes sure that the paper is gone, then walks back out.

On his way to the library, he almost runs into the person he was looking for, “Arty, hey, just who I was looking for,” he smiles at her and puts a little more pep into his question than necessary, “Saw you reading that book in the dining hall, mind showing me where you found it?”

Artemis looks over him curiously, but quickly picks up on his insinuation, “Yeah sure. Follow me.”

The two of them make their way into the library, passing by Tiny Tina, Gaige, Sakamoto, Takamaki and Sanageyama, who were all eager to check out the pool next door. Once inside, they look around the various shelves until finally they find Babs in the corner of the library, behind one of the shelves.

She points to the camera above her and whispers, “I noticed that there was something off about that camera when I was in here. Turns out, its malfunctioning and mostly showing a loop, not to mention the audio for it is broken. If we whisper and stay behind this shelf, none of the other cameras should pick it up.”

Dick and Artemis both smile, “nice going. It should help us investigate this place without Monokuma interrupting us,” Artemis says, “Should we tell the others?”

Dick shakes his head, “No. 16 of us won’t fit in here, and the more people know, the more likely it is that Monokuma will find out about it. Until we’ve got a specific reason to tell someone, I say we keep this place just for us. We also shouldn’t abuse it either. Monokuma will eventually notice people disappearing in the library and get suspicious.”

Barbara nods, “I agree. Well, I guess for now we just look for more clues and socialise with everyone else. Anyone up for a swim?”

* * *

“Oh, come on Ryuji! Pass the ball!” Dick hears Takamaki shout as he enters the swimming pool in the swimming trunks he found in his room. They weren’t his normal ones, but they clearly fit him, so he decided to change into them. He finds Sanageyama, Takamaki, Sakamoto, Gaige and Tina jumping around in the pool in matching swimming costumes, throwing around a ball.

“No way! You keep dropping it!” Sakamoto shouts back and throws it to Sanageyama, who catches it at the last second before it hits the water. He turns around when he hears the clapping of multiple flip flops against the wet tiles, “Oh hey guys, wanna join?”

“Hell yeah!” Babs shouts and canon-balls into the swimming pool.

“Ah!” Artemis shouts when Babs’ cannonball splashes her and Dick. She laughs it off, “Give us some warning Babs!”

Dick laughs it off too, “So, don’t want to get splashed huh?”

Artemis quickly realises his intentions, and tries to run off, but he catches up to her and throws her into the pool. The splash covers everyone in the pool, and Dick quickly joins them by diving in.

“You traitor!” Artemis shouts once she swims up to the surface, and splashes at him, “Babs! Control your boyfriend!”

“If you think for a second that anyone can keep him under control, you’re crazy,” Babs laughs, and throws the ball that she managed to get a hold of to Sanageyama.

“Hold on,” Gaige says, “You two are dating?”

“Have been for almost a year now yeah,” Babs nods, smiling, “Anyway, we gonna play ball or not?”

“Nope!”

They’re all interrupted when Monokuma appears on a lounger by the pool, wearing sunglasses and a sun hat while pretending to read a magazine. He throws the magazine behind him and jumps to his feet, “All you guys have been doing is playing around and none of you have even once considered murder! There must be something missing... oh I know!”

“You clearly didn’t figure it out just no-,” Artemis mutters but Monokuma cuts her off.

“It’s motive! So I’ve prepared a little something for everyone to enjoy!” Monokuma says cheerfully, “Please make your way over to the lobby as soon as possible...” he looks over the group, “Although you may want to put on some clothes. Don’t want to make things awkward for everyone!”

“and like that, pool time is ruined,” Tiny Tina grumbles.

* * *

Unsurprisingly, the pool group is the last to arrive at the lobby, water still dripping from their hair.

“What’s this about?” Gaige asks still drying her hair with her towel, “I thought we were living peacefully, right?”

Rose shrugs, “no idea, I was in my room but if everyone’s here then we’re all good, right?”

“That’s what you think, Rosie!” Monokuma’s voice sounds from the reception desk. He jumps onto it, same e-handbook in his hand as the one from last night, “I’m here to mix that aaaaaall up!” he announces triumphantly, and Togami groans from the back.

“Will you please get to it? Some of us have better things to do.”

“Hey! You don’t get to boss the host around! Someone better teach you some manners!” Monokuma claws appears at the end of his paws.

Everyone looks back to Togami, who doesn’t flinch or stand down. Instead, he pulls out his own e-handbook, “I know you, Monokuma. You can’t punish me unless I break one of your rules or I’m punished after a trial.”

Monokuma retracts his claws after a few seconds and growls, “Fine! Fine! Fine! Fine! Fine! FINE!” He shouts, and quickly calms down. He clears his throat, “Anyhoo! No one’s dead yet, and I’m getting bored here watching all of you cherish your new-found friendships! It’s time to switch this up from 90120 to Battle Royale! Hmm... but since you kiddos won’t just off each other like normal people, you’re gonna need more motive,” he lifts up the e-handbook, “now, please direct your attention to your individual e-handbooks!” Everyone’s e-handbooks chime as videos are uploaded to them, “Though I should warn ya, it ain’t pretty!”

Dick pulls out his e-handbook and clicks on the video. It’s soundless, and Dick looks up to find everyone else immersed in their own videos, all of which were also soundless. He looks back down and finds the familiar skyline of Blüdhaven. A title appears over the skyline, reminiscent of a 60s sci-fi show. It reads ‘ **A World Without Nightwing**.’

A helicopter flies over the city and through the title, and a man-sized object falls out of it. Dick is barely able to make it out, but as soon as it hits the ground, the entire city falls ablaze, and the camera is covered by smoke. Once the smoke clears, the entire city turns into a radioactive wasteland. The last thing Dick sees is some scrolling text on the screen,

‘ **Without Nightwing to stop him, Deathstroke terminates his town! Only you can stop him, Dick Grayson! Will the Bird Boy kill someone in exchange for the thousands of Blüdhaven lives?! Find out after the murder!** ’

He’s barely able to make sense of the video, he hears Tina scream.

“WHAT IS THIS?! HOW…? NO!”

Sakamoto stomps over to Monokuma, “What the hell is up with this?! How did you get this kind of footage?!”

“The miracle of photoshop of course!” Monokuma laughs, “Or… maybe I just recorded something that happened while you were gone. The only way for you to find out is by killing someone!”

“Why you-!” Sakamoto pulls his arm back, but in the last second, Akechi jumps in and pulls him back, “The hell are you doing?! You heard what that bear said, right?!”

Still holding him back, Akechi explains himself, “Violence against host Monokuma is strictly prohibited,” he quotes from the rules in the e-handbook, “Unless you’re eager to find out what kind of punishment he has for rulebreakers, I suggest you calm yourself.”

Sakamoto grits his teeth, and looks back at the grinning bear, but eventually he stops struggling. Once Akechi is certain that he won’t do anything stupid, he lets him go.

“You’re surprisingly strong,” Sakamoto mutters and walks back, looking down. When he does eventually look up, he finds Ann holding a hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face, “oh shit, Ann… what did you see?”

She slowly looks up from her e-handbook and removes her trembling hand from her mouth, “i-i-its Shiho… she…. I wasn’t there and she… oh god,” she falls to her knees and Sakamoto quickly kneels down beside her. Artemis runs over to them and kneels down next to them.

Naegi grips his e-handbooks tightly, and looks over to Monokuma, “is that everything?” He says angrily.

“Upupupu! That’s all for now folks! Happy murdering!” Monokuma announces and jumps behind the reception desk once more.

Kiryuuin turns around to look in Takamaki’s direction, “Take her back to her room and try to calm her,” she commands Artemis and Sakamoto, who, without hesitating, help Takamaki get back on her feet and take her to her room, “Everyone else, follow me to the dining hall.”

Gaige winces and puts away her phone away, “Actually, Lady S, if you don’t mind… I think I need some time to… process this.”

Sanageyama nods, agreeing with the younger girl, “Sorry Lady Satsuki, but I agree with her. I think we all need some time.”

“How about we take the rest of the day off and talk in the morning, yeah?” Dick suggests, and looks around the room, “I can only assume that those videos were pretty… shocking and emotional for most of you but, is everyone going to be okay?”

Hesitantly, Tiny Tina raises her hand, “I… can someone…” she trails off, but Rose walks over to her before she finishes.

“Come on, lets grab some stuff from the kitchen and deface the Monokuma portraits,” she offers, and Tina gives her a little nod.

“I’ll come with, I could use the company,” Monika says and follows the two girls out of the room.

Everyone else disperses soon after, leaving only Dick and Babs in the room. She walks over to him and pulls him into a hug.

Dick hugs her back with one arm and uses his free hand to run his hand through her hair, “If I don’t go back, Blüdhaven gets nuked by Deathstroke. I could ask Rose if she knows anything about it but she’s cut of all ties to him after she joined the team.”

Babs buries her head in his chest, “It’s all just lies, Dick. We can’t let it get to us.”

“What did you…? If you don’t mind…?”

“My dad... and Joker was there...” She trails off, hugging him tighter and burying her head in her chest. She doesn’t need to explain further.

Dick pulls away and takes her hand. He takes her towards his room and opens the door. She stops at the door and Dick gives her a confused look.

“Monokuma wouldn’t let me in a guy’s room before…”

Dick shrugs, “Screw Monokuma. Togami said that he won’t punish us unless we break one of his rules. As far as we’re aware, there’s nothing like that in his official rules.”

Babs looks around, but it doesn’t seem like Monokuma was going to make any more appearances. She sighs, “Alright, fine….”

She follows him into the room, and he locks the door behind her.

* * *

The next day, Dick wakes up with Babs in his bed. For a brief moment, he almost feels like he’s back at home, but the monitor on his wall and camera looking over the room brings him back to the cruel reality that was the killing hotel life.

This becomes abundantly clear to him when the morning announcement is made.

**_*Ding dong, bing bong*_ **

“Good morning everyone! Get ready to great another beauuuuuutiful day!” Monokuma announces though the monitor.

Next to him, Babs stirs awake, eyelids still clearly heavy, “Mornin’.”

“Good morning,” he kisses her on the forehead, “how are you feeling?”

Babs falls back onto her pillow and groans. Dick chuckles, and starts to climb out of bed, “alright well, I’ll go see if anyone’s in the dining hall yet.”

Babs lifts her head a little to make a request, “get me some water, yeah?”

Dick chuckles, “of course,” he grabs the clothes closest to him and puts them on. He leaves the room, leaving his e-handbook behind and walks over to the dining hall. Inside, he finds Rose and Akechi sitting at the table already, “You two been here long?”

“I had trouble sleeping,” Rose informs him, “Figured I might as well wait here till the meeting starts.”

“I woke up earlier and decided to finish my book,” Akechi shows him the murder mystery book, “Although it’s looking like my prediction for this book was correct,” he furrows his eyebrows.

“Right…” Dick trails off, “Well, I’m just gonna grab a bottle of water, get it to Babs and come back here with her.”

Akechi sets down his book and stands up, “The coffee here isn’t ideal, but it’s better than nothing. I’ll join you.”

“Rose? You want anything?” Dick asks, looking back in her direction, hoping that she’d come with the two of them instead of leaving him alone with Akechi.

She sighs and rolls her eye, “yeah okay, I guess I should make breakfast too.”

The three of them leave the room and head over to the kitchen, “So Rose, what’s your ability?” Dick asks.

“Ultimate Dual-Wielder, pretty specific but I kinda like it,” Rose explains, opening the door to the kitchen.

Dick is about to reply when he notices the blood on the tiles of the kitchen. He quickly makes his way behind the kitchen island and finds the body of one of the guests.

The first victim of the killing hotel game lay in front of him, covered in her own blood, multiple stab wounds in her chest.

“Jesus!” Rose shouts when she sees the body.

“Oh fuck,” Akechi swears under his breath.

**_*Ding dong, ding dong*_ **

When a chime different to the one for the morning and night announcement sounds from the monitor, the three of them look up and find Monokuma sitting in his chair, looking at them from the other side of the screen.

“A body has been discovered! After some time has passed, which you can use however you wish, a class trial will begin!”

The monitor switches off.

“What the hell was that?!” Rose asks, and Akechi is quick to answer.

“The rules indicate that once three or more people discover a body, an announcement is made… I… oh no,” he promptly leaves the room, holding a hand to his mouth with the other around his stomach and Rose calls after him.

Dick doesn’t follow, instead looking back to the girl who lay dead in front of him.

Even if Akechi was a detective, Dick understood how it felt to see the lifeless body of someone you once considered a teammate.

Ann Takamaki was dead, and now, it was up to him and the others to find her killer.


	4. Love Breaks All Boundaries- Deadly Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The remaining guests must investigate and uncover all of the mysteries involved with the newest murder in order to survive.

With Akechi gone and Rose going after him, Dick is the only one left in the kitchen, but he doesn’t move. There was no way someone actually killed Takamaki, right? It was just another one of Monokuma’s tricks, just like that video. Maybe this wasn’t even Takamaki, just a fake made to look like a dead body.

“Grayson!” Kiryuuin appears at the door, followed by a soaked Gamagoori who held a towel around his hips, “You found her as well, yes?”

Dick nods slowly and looks back at her, “Yeah, Akechi and Rose were with me… hold on, as well?”

Kiryuuin nods, “I found her only two minutes ago and went to get someone,” she looks up to Gamagoori, “Wake everyone up and get them here immediately. Grayson and I will stand guard.”

“At once, Lady Satsuki!” Gamagoori rushes out of the kitchen himself while Kiryuuin walks closer to Grayson.

With her by his side, Dick walks closer to the body, but Kiryuuin quickly grabs his arm and stops him. She points to the floor, “be cautious. You cannot disturb the crime scene.”

He pauses, and mentally slaps himself for forgetting such an obvious rule for any investigation. Even for a rookie cop and trained vigilante, dealing with such a gruesome murder of someone he had just been playing around with in the swimming pool yesterday was messing with his head.

It was the hotel. The killing hotel life. That was messing with his head. There was no other explanation.

He feels something cold and wet against his arm and looks back at the woman’s arm. The sleeve of her dress was wet with three red stains on it, “Kiryuuin… is that… blood?”

She pulls back her arm immediately and hides the stain with her hand, “It is mine. This morning I had gotten some on myself and attempted to wash it off as soon as the water switched back on. It did not come off and so I came here for some lemon juice which was when I found Takamaki’s body.”

“What do you mean when the water switched back on?” Dick asks, a little confused.

“Have you not noticed it yet?” Kiryuuin asks and pints to the sink, “Between 10 PM and 7 AM, to us known as night time, the water doesn’t work.”

He wants to press her for more information, but that’s when everyone starts coming into the kitchen to witness the horrors that had happened.

“Ann!” he hears Sakamoto shout within the crowd, and soon he emerges. Just as Kiryuuin had held him back before, Dick stops him from running towards the crime scene and accidentally ruining the evidence, “Let go of me!”

Dick shakes his head, “No. If you mess with the crime scene we might not find out who killed Takamaki.”

“Who cares about that?! I just want to-,”

Sanageyama and Rose, who had apparently brought Akechi back to the kitchen, both step forward and help Dick with keeping Sakamoto from ruining the crime scene. Eventually, they both manage to pull him back, “we’ll take him to his room until he calms down,” Sanageyama suggests, and with no one but Sakamoto objecting by kicking and screaming, he and Rose pull him out of the kitchen.

“Hmm, so sad to see the youth these days have so little control over their emotions.”

Everyone turns their attention away from Sakamoto and finds the sadistic bear on one of the counters, looking over the body. He looks over to the group, “Well, I guess I’ll just go see those three later then!”

“What the hell do you want?” Artemis, who’s hair just like Gamagoori’s was dripping wet, asks, “Can’t you see that we’re in the middle of something here?”

Monokuma shakes his head, “Such rudeness, and here I was, coming to help you all with the investigation!”

“Help us?” Monika, who also had damp hair, asks, “Didn’t you want this to happen?”

“Upupupu!” Monokuma laughs, “Why of course I did! But now you all have to determine who the blackened is! And how can you do that without any real way of solving the murder.”

Togami huffs, leaning his back against the wall, “just give us the damned Monokuma file already.”

“Monokuma file?” Babs asks, as the bear pulls out a tablet, different from the one he had used yesterday. The only thing that read across the screen was ‘Monokuma File #1’.

Naegi gets to explaining, “It’s a file which usually tells you the time and cause of death, depending on how generous Monokuma’s feeling.”

“Hey! I’m always generous with you people!” Monokuma argues, “I give you food and shelter and all you do to repay me is stealing my lines! How’s that fair?!” Monokuma angrily throws the tablet in the groups direction, and Dick catches it. Monokuma quickly shifts his tone of voice to his regular cheerful one, “Well then, happy investigating!”

The bear jumps behind the counter and disappears once more.

Dick looks down at the tablet and touches the screen. A photo of the scene in front of them pops up with a little description below it. With the silence in the room, Dick can only guess that everyone was expecting for him to read it out loud,

“The victim’s body was discovered in the kitchen on the first floor. The estimated time of death is 4:30 AM. The victim has one stab wound in the back, and multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdominal region. Other than these wounds, no signs of struggle and no chemicals were detected. The victim most likely died from blood loss.”

He looks back over to the group, “I know it’s morbid but… we need to find out who the killer is in the limited time that we’ve got.”

Gamagoori steps forward, “We obviously need someone guarding the crime scene. I would be honoured to perform such a task!”

Tiny Tina hops over as well, “I don’t know anythin’ about investigating and stuff, so I’ll join this guy. You guys better find some clues, or I will kick all of your stinky little butts before teddy gets the chance!”

“Uh… noted?” Naegi says, confused, but nevertheless he moves on, “Uh there’s one thing I noticed on the way here, which is that someone broke into the storage room. I think we’ll need to investigate that.”

Babs nods, “sounds important. I’ll go check it out, but just to be sure I think it’s best if someone comes with me.”

“I have been there before, so I will assist you,” Kiryuuin offers, and leaves the kitchen. Babs follows her out, as does Naegi who decides to help them out.

Artemis extends her hand to Dick, asking for the tablet, “I might as well go and show Rose and Sanageyama this, maybe they’ll know something.”

Dick nods and gives her the tablet. She walks out of the room, leaving him, Gamagoori, Tiny Tina, Gaige, Monika, Akechi, Togami and Pamela left.

“I’m going to investigate on my own,” Togami announces, and no one gets the chance to stop him. Pamela doesn’t even give an excuse and leaves on her own.

Dick looks over to Gaige and Monika, “Uh, I don’t know how experienced you two are with murder investigations-,”

“Not at all!” Gaige informs him, and Monika raises an eyebrow.

“And you, the Ultimate Acrobat, are?”

Dick nods, “Acrobatics is something I used to do, in the real world I’m actually a cop. So I think that you can leave the crime scene to me and Akechi, while you two could ask everyone about where they were or if they know anything?”

Gaige salutes him, “Sir yes, sir!”

“I… I’m not… you don’t salute-,” Dick stutters, but Monika cuts him off and starts dragging Gaige out of the room.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she doesn’t accidentally offend anyone or anything.”

With that, only the two guards, himself and Akechi remain in the kitchen. He looks back at the slightly pale Ultimate Detective, “I thought you were the Ultimate Detective? Haven’t you seen this kind of stuff before?”

Akechi shakes his head, “Hardly… I am a high school detective, and as such I have never seen something like this in real life, only in photos. Although… I have never had such a strong reaction to a murder scene before, and I did not know Takamaki too well.”

“Will you be okay for this?” Dick asks, just to be sure.

Akechi slowly nods, “Yes,” he clears his throat and adjusts his leather glove, “Let us begin,” he reaches into the inside of his jacket and pulls out a red notebook with a distinct letter A in a circle and a pen.

“Do you carry that around with you everywhere?” Dick raises an eyebrow.

Akechi nods and flicks through until he finds an empty page, “I never leave my house without it. It comes in very handy at times and helps me remember. Now, tell me, has anything changed since I was last here?”

Dick shakes his head, “No, Kiryuuin made sure that I didn’t touch anything, but… well, if you’re keeping track then I might as well tell you what she told me,” he goes on to explain how she got blood on her sleeve and tried to wash it off.

Akechi quickly scribbles down the details into his notepad, “so far I believe we have the Monokuma file, the body discovery announcement and Kiryuuin’s wet sleeve as clues.”

Dick looks over his shoulder to read what he had written down, “You think the announcement is a clue?”

Akechi nods, “It may come up in this… class trial as Monokuma insists on calling it. I want to make sure that I have everything down. Well then,” he takes a couple of steps to the body, just short of stepping into the pool of blood with Gamagoori keeping a close eye on him, while Dick steps around the island counters to take a look at the body from the other side. Akechi uses his pen to point to the pool of blood. Dick looks down and finds what he was pointing too.

“It’s a footprint.”

Akechi nods, “Perhaps its Takamaki’s?”

Dick shakes his head, “No… after a stabbing like this, I don’t think she would have gotten up again. Besides, if she did, we’d see smudges around the counters, but they’re all clean. Not to mention, there’s only one footprint, not two. I think it’s the killers footprint.”

Akechi nods, and scribbles it down, “Hmm… unfortunately it’s hard to tell who it could belong to, it’s quite generic. However, I believe we can exclude anyone wearing a heel and anyone with particularly large feet.”

Dick nods silently, and his gaze shifts to some glass on the floor, “I think that used to be a glass, I’m guessing it got shattered when Takamaki was killed but… why didn’t we hear it? Or Takamaki’s possible screaming for that matter?”

“The rooms are soundproofed… which I suppose makes you question the ‘remaining quiet in the halls’ rule, but Takamaki could have been screaming till her vocal cords broke and we would not have heard it,” Akechi informs him and notes those details down as well.

Dick looks up from the floor, deciding that for now that’s all he could see without disturbing the crime scene. Although, given the nature of such an investigation he would’ve liked to further investigate the body, however for now it was impossible to do without everyone’s consent.

“You’re thinking that we should take a closer look at Takamaki, yes?” Akechi guesses.

“Mhm,” Dick hums, “I’m worried we might miss something, I mean Naegi did mention that Monokuma doesn’t necessarily include everything in the file…” He looks over to Tiny Tina and the ever vigilant Gamagoori, “once everyone’s satisfied with their own investigation of the crime scene, would you two be okay with that?”

Tiny Tina shrugs, and Gamagoori nods, “If it’ll help in the trial, then of course!”

“Glad we got that sorted,” Dick says and look to the counter next to him. There was a second glass near the sink which had some drops of water on the edges. He points it out to Akechi for him to note it down. He looks into the sink where he finds a dark object, “Hey Akechi, would you mind coming over and grabbing that for me?”

Akechi walks around the kitchen island and pulls out the object from the sink, “hmm, I’m not quite sure what it is but... it looks burnt.”

“Hey!” Monokuma jumps out of nowhere as usual. Unlike his usual happy self whenever he first showed up, he looked furious, “I just bought that new kitchen rag yesterday after you twerps decided to burn the old one! If you don’t stop destroying property around here, I’ll have to make a rule about it!”

Dick smirks, “So it’s a kitchen rag, huh?”

“Oops!” Monokuma exclaims and covers his mouth his paw, “No!” He shouts, clearly lying, “forget I said anything! It’s totally not important to the case anyway!”

With that, Monokuma disappears once more.

Akechi and Dick give each other odd looks before Akechi quickly scrawls what Monokuma had just told them into his notebook.

He returns the rag to where he had found it, but as he does so, he wipes his finger across the sink. He shows the results to Dick, “You had told me that the water does not work at night, correct?”

Dick nods, and immediately notices what Akechi was getting at. The finger of his glove had gotten damp when he trailed his finger across the sink.

“Hmm,” Akechi hums in thought, “there is one more thing I would like to investigate here, however it’s not possible for us to get there without stepping in the blood,” he points to a wooden block on the counter behind Takamaki’s body which contained a set of knives, “The murder weapon must be one of those knives.”

Dick thinks it over. While the murder did occur in the kitchen, Naegi did point out that he saw that someone had broken into the storage room. On top of that, the counter near the knives was completely clean, but would it have stayed that way if the killer had placed the knife back into the wooden block?

“I think we should check out the storage room before we jump to that conclusion. We might get a better idea there.”

Akechi nods, “I agree; however, I have a couple of questions for you, Gamagoori,” he turns around and Gamagoori stays silent, waiting for his question.

“…well? What do you need to know?”

“Oh, uh,” he flips the page back to his first note, “Kiryuuin had informed Dick that she had gotten blood on her uniform that morning in her room, however I did not see any cuts on her that would have made that kind of stain. As you are her friend, I figure you may know something about it.”

Gamagoori sighs, “Lady Satsuki is not the killer, I’m sure of it. But if this helps her then I have no option but to explain. The uniform she wears is not a regular dress. It is powerful, sentient armour that can only be activated by drinking her blood. She has three needles in the dress which she uses to activate that suit.”

It’s hard for him to believe such a ridiculous concept at first, but with the things he’s seen and the friends he has back in his regular life, Dick doesn’t question the possibility of such armour existing,

“She probably didn’t tell us cos it sounds so ridiculous but… if it drinks her blood then she wouldn’t have bloodstains on it, right?”

Akechi hums in thought again, “We… may have to ask her about it when we get the chance,” he scribbles down Gamagoori’s answer before asking him his other question, “Earlier I saw you in the corridor in nothing more than a towel and wet hair. Care to explain yourself?”

“Lady Satsuki had called out for me when I was swimming in the pool after she found the body. Didn’t have a chance to get changed in my room until after I started spreading word about the body.”

“Hmm… very well then, I suppose that is all for now,” Akechi closes his notebook and walks out of the kitchen. Dick runs over and catches up to him.

“What was that about?”

“Kiryuuin herself said it. How long after the morning announcement did we find the body?”

Dick shrugs, “It couldn’t have been that long after 7? Maybe 7:05… Kiryuuin said she found the body two minutes before so I’d say 7:03 for her.”

Akechi nods, agreeing with him, “Yes I think that is correct. I saw everyone leave their rooms shortly after Gamagoori started pounding on doors, and as we experienced yesterday, not everyone wakes up for the morning announcement.”

Dick thinks over what Akechi was implying. Kiryuuin said it herself…? He’d have to ask him about that later.

* * *

As soon as the two detectives walk over to the storage room, Naegi holds up a piece of the curtain for them. It was clearly cut, although the ends were a little frayed, “Togami told me to check the storage room before going to the kitchen and I found that the curtain was cut.”

Dick takes the curtain from him and examines it, “Someone would’ve had to use a knife to cut this, it’s the only sharp object around that could cut the curtain like this.”

“Yet another reason for use to see the knives in the kitchen,” Akechi states as he writes things down, “Have you seen Kiryuuin? I would like to ask her why she went to the swimming pool to get someone instead of the rooms.”

“Oh, I can answer that,” Naegi says, “I was talking to her and Gamagoori last night and he mentioned how he wanted start swimming every morning, so she probably knew she’d find Gamagoori at the swimming pool.”

“I suppose that clears this up,” Akechi mutters, and before he can ask anymore questions, the three boys hear Rose shouting in the storage room.

“Oh, come on! Seriously?!”

Dick rushes inside, only to find her looking through the weapons whilst holding a katana in her left hand.

“What happened?!”

“Everyone’s weapons are here, even both of your escrima sticks, but Monokuma totally cheaped out and only got one of my katanas!” Rose explains, waving the blade around. Realising what she looked like in front of everyone else, she sets it down, “Sorry, I’m just pissed is all.”

“Are you certain that he did that?” Akechi asks, “this room was broken into after all. There must be a reason for that.”

“The killer might’ve stolen her katana and used it in the murder. That’s what you think, right?” Babs asks.

“It’s certainly a possibility,” Akechi nods and continues scribbling in his notebook.

“Oh yeah, before I forget,” Dick remembers, “We need to step into the blood to reach the wooden block of knives, so we wanted to know if you’d be fine with kind of messing up the crime scene.”

“Huh?” Naegi says, “Well, I guess if there’s no other way around it, then sure. Akechi’s been writing down everything, right?”

“Everything I deem important.”

Rose sighs and shakes her head, “I was wondering when you’d go from useful to asshole again… anyway, yeah do what you want. By the way, Sanageyama is still with Sakamoto but he’s kinda feeling better now. Maybe not better but... calmer, definitely.”

Akechi nods, “Hm, I don’t think he’ll talk to me,” he looks to Dick, “Well if Gaige and Monika haven’t talked to him, maybe you should try?”

“What are you gonna do in the meantime?” Dick asks.

Akechi looks back down at his notebook, “I think I will go ask everyone about the wooden knife block, hopefully someone else will have found some clues as well. Meet me in the kitchen once you are done.”

* * *

Dick reaches Sakamoto’s room and stops. Under normal circumstances, he would’ve given Sakamoto some more time to recover, but he had no way of knowing when Monokuma would decide to stop their investigation and move on to the trial. He sighs and knocks on the door, “Uh, Sakamoto? It’s Dick… I have some questions for you…”

The door opens soon after that, but instead of Sakamoto, Sanageyama opens the door, “Hey man, he’s calmer now but...”

Dick nods silently, and moves past Sanageyama, and over to Sakamoto who was sitting on his bed, “Do you mind if we talk, Sakamoto?”

The blonde, younger boy nods slowly, looking down at the ground, “You can call me Ryuji, by the way… Never really cared for honorifics to be honest. You wanna know where I was when Ann died, right?”

“I hate to ask it but... yeah that’s kinda why I’m here,” Dick pulls up a desk chair and sits opposite to him, “Tell me what you know.”

Ryuji looks up, “R-right… well last night I stayed up with her for as long as I could. Artemis went back to her room around midnight... and after that Ann and I just chatted. Around 4 she said she wanted to grab a drink, and I was gettin’ real tired, so I asked her if she would be okay. After that, I went to my room and went to sleep…”

No wonder Ryuji freaked out so much, Dick thought, after all, if he had stayed with her then she might not have died that night. He reaches out and puts a hand on Ryuji’s shoulder, “look… I know it doesn’t feel like it but this isn’t your fault. We’ll find the killer… I promise.”

Ryuji nods slowly, and after a while, Dick stands up, “I’m sorry but I have to get back to the investigation. You’ll be fine, right?”

“Right… guess I’ll see you at the trial,” Ryuji says distantly. Dick makes his way to the door, and at the last minute, Ryuji calls after him, “Hold on! There might be one more thing… apparently, Ann saw somethin’ real bad happen to a close friend of hers in the video… I don’t know if that helps at all, but it might be relevant…”

Dick nods, humming, “Hm, it might be. Anyway, if you remember anything else, just let me know.”

* * *

When Dick gets back to the kitchen, he finds a set of bloody footprints on the floor leading up to Akechi who was holding a knife in his hand, “So… your nausea is gone then?”

“Hm?” Akechi looks up, “Oh, yes, we have spent quite some time in this room after all”

Dick points to the footprints and the knife in his hands, “You work fast. Was everyone fine with it?”

Akechi shrugs and hands the knife over to him, “I have absolutely no idea, however we are running out of time and I doubt we will get the opportunity to come back here during the trial,” he looks up to find a ticked off Dick Grayson, “Feel free to lecture me after the trial, for now we must solve this mystery.”

Dick considers not taking his advice, but in some way, he was right. They were running out of time. Instead, he sighs and shakes his head, “Fine… what’s up with this knife?”

Akechi smirks at Dick’s reaction and gets to explaining. He points over to the wooden block, “I noticed that the wood around this particular knife was darker than the rest. Perhaps that was our murder weapon?”

“Its clean,” Dick points out without taking the knife from Akechi, “Have you had a look at the body?”

“Oh yes,” Akechi walks over to the counter, his footprints still leaving a mess behind him, and sets down the knife. He hands his notebook over to Dick for him to read his findings.

‘One stab wound in the back, two in the chest and three in the abdominal region. The stab wounds appear to all be entry wounds. No trace evidence was found near the body.’

***Ding dong, bing bong***

The monitor in the kitchen lights up, causing Dick and Akechi to turn their attention to it.

As usual, Monokuma appears on the screen after some static clears, “Times up everyone! Now that you’ve all finished your investigations, its time for our class trial! Please proceed to the red door located in the lobby.”

The screen switches off, and Dick hands the notebook back over to Akechi. Instead of accepting it, Akechi pushes it closer to him, “Oh, I have it all memorised. For the duration of the trial, I believe it may be of more use to you than it may to me.”

“If you insist…” Dick closes the notebook and puts it in his back jeans pocket, “I guess we should get going, huh?”

As the two detectives approached the red door, everyone was already waiting for them. Some looked worried, others looked frightened, but the feeling that Dick could feel emanating from every single one of the guests was dread. The dread of having to conduct an investigation for such a young, positive girl. The dread of having to reach a verdict and sentence one of the other guests to death. The dread of making the wrong decision and being executed.

The red doors open and reveal an elevator behind them. The doors to the elevator open, and everyone starts walking in. just before he passes through the red door, someone grabs Dicks shoulder and pulls him back.

“Here,” Pamela Isley says and gives him something soft. It looked like some white material, covered in blood, “It’s more useful to you than it is to me. I found this among other similar shreds in a washing machine in the laundry room.”

“Why?” Dick asks, confused. He was sure that Pamela was even less cooperative than Akechi or Togami.

“I already know that you’re Nightwing, you’re terrible at hiding it,” she tells him as if that was supposed to be an explanation. While he’s surprised that she had found out, he decides there was a time and a place for that conversation, and it wasn’t here.

“What’s that got to do with this?”

She leans in and whispers so that no one else can hear, “You’re not a murderer, but you are a detective. I’m not going to convince anyone here of who the killer is, but if anyone can figure it out and convince everyone else of it, it’s the Boy Wonder.”

“You don’t want to die, is that it?” Dick asks just as quietly.

Pamela smirks, “Does anyone?”

Dick shakes his head, “If this is just some way of you tricking me into thinking you’re innocent, it’s not going to work.”

She lets him go when he tugs his shoulder away from her, but her sly grin remains on her face, “That’s just what I hoped you’d say.”

The two of them are the last to step in, and the elevator doors close. Dick pulls out the notebook and, on the way, down, reads through Akechi’s notes one last time.

“What have you got there?” Babs whispers to him. She’s not being secretive, but with how quiet everyone else was being, she felt the need to keep her voice down.

“Akechi’s detective notes. It’s all of the evidence listed in one place… If anything will help us, it’s this,” with the pen he’d borrowed from Akechi on his way to the lobby, he notes down the final piece of evidence.

* * *

**Monokuma File #1**

The victim’s body was discovered in the kitchen on the first floor. The estimated time of death is 4:15 AM. The victim has one stab wound in the back, and multiple stab wounds to the chest and abdominal region. Other than these wounds, no signs of struggle were detected, and no chemicals were used.

UPDATE: One stab wound in the back, two in the chest and three in the abdominal region. The stab wounds appear to all be entry wounds. No trace evidence was found near the body.

**Body Discovery Announcement**

When Akechi, Dick and Rose entered the kitchen and found Takamaki’s body, the announcement went off.

**Kiryuuin’s Sleeve**

Kiryuuin’s sleeve was a little wet and had blood on it. She claimed that it was her own blood but did not explain how it got there.

**Pool of blood**

There was a pool of blood surrounding the body with one small footprint in it. The footprint is quite small and did not come from a heel or any distinct shoe.

**Broken glass on the floor**

Broken glass was found next to the body. All sides were covered in blood.

**Empty glass next to sink**

An empty glass was found near the kitchen sink.

**Burnt cloth in the kitchen sink**

A shred of cloth was found in the kitchen sink, but most of it had burned up.

Monokuma confirmed that it was a kitchen rag that he had bought to replace the one that Monika and Sakamoto had burned up two days ago.

**Kitchen Sink**

Some parts of the kitchen sink were a little wet.

**Gamagoori’s Account**

Gamagoori confirmed that Kiryuuin’s dress was actually powerful armour which can only be activated by using her blood. The needles in her dress allowed her to draw blood.

**Naegi’s Account**

Naegi had talked to Kiryuuin and Gamagoori the night before where Gamagoori said he would get up earlier to go swimming.

**Cut up Curtain**

The curtain keeping the storage room locked was cut. It could only be cut using a knife from the kitchen.

**Missing katana**

Rose claimed that one of her katanas was missing from the storage room.

**Stained wooden block**

A block with kitchen knives was found on the counter in the kitchen. The wood around one of the knives looked darker than the others.

**Knives**

All of the knives in the block were clean and dry.

**Sakamoto’s Account**

Sakamoto had stayed with Ann until about four. After that, he said that she wanted to get a drink of water. He claimed that he had not accompanied her, and instead went back to his own room.

**Motive Video**

The video that everyone received from Monokuma. Takamaki had seen something terrible happen to her friend.

**Blood soaked white, shredded material**

Shred of white material with blood on it was found in the washing machine.


	5. Love Breaks All Boundaries- Class Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All of the clues have been collected, and so the first class trial begins.

As soon as the doors of the elevator open, the group steps into the courtroom. To Dick’s surprise, it looked nothing like a regular courtroom, but instead of a bench or a judge’s stand, there were sixteen stands in a circle, all facing each other, a seat at the end of the room in which Monokuma was sitting, looking over the court, and above him was a giant monitor. The entire room was circular, with only two doors, one of them being the door leading out of the elevator, and the other on the opposite side of room. The decorations on the walls made it almost look like a cityscape at night. The additional element to this already morbid scene was a black and white portrait of the victim with a red cross over it being held up by a pole at one of the stands.

“What the hell?!” Ryuji shouts and points to the portrait, “why do you have that here?!”

Monokuma laughs, “Well, it would be unfair for Takamaki to miss out on the trial just because she’s dead, wouldn’t you agree? Now, please take your seats and let the trial begin.”

Togami and Naegi are the first to move, finding their places quickly. Everyone else walks over to their own stands, some more reluctantly than others. Dick finds his stand closest to the elevator doors, directly opposite Pamela, and so, opposite Monokuma as well who was sitting behind her. On his right was Sanageyama, arms folded and looking down. On his left was Naegi, clutching the edges of his own stand.

As soon as everyone’s taken their place, Monokuma begins the trial,

**CLASS TRIAL IN SESSION**

**ALL RISE**

“Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! So, your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit’ then only they will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one… Then I’ll punish everyone _besides_ the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will be able to check out of the hotel!”

Rose, standing to the left of Takamaki’s portrait, is the first to speak, “How can we know that you didn’t kill Takamaki just to start the killing game?”

Monokuma gasps, “I would never do such a thing! Watching you kill each other is far more exciting!”

Babs, standing opposite Takamaki’s portrait, speaks next, “Then that confirms it, one of us has in fact killed Takamaki.”

Gaige, standing between Naegi and Artemis, nods, “Yeah, and I think I know who did it!” She points to the other side of the court. Everyone turns their heads and looks to Kiryuuin who stood to Babs’ right side, “I think Lady S did it! I mean, she’s the only one who had blood on her! She obviously did it.”

Kiryuuin huffs, “I believe I have already explained how it got there.”

Naegi hums, “Actually, you never told us how it got there, just that it was yours. Besides, it doesn’t look like you’ve got any cuts on you. The only way you could’ve gotten a bloodstain like that on your sleeve was if someone else blead on you.”

Naegi’s statement made sense, after all, if Kiryuuin had cut herself on something and gotten it on her dress, her dress sleeve would’ve had a gash on it as well… except…

“You’ve got that wrong,” Dick says quickly and looks over to Gamagoori, “You told me that she’s got needles inside the sleeve of her dress, right?”

Gamagoori nods, “Of course, it was designed that way to draw blood from her with ease.”

Sanageyama clearly winces, which Gamagoori notices immediately, “You object?”

The swordsman sighs, “I don’t want to doubt Lady Satsuki, but… if she had gotten her own blood on the kamui then she would have activated it, and the bloodstain would have disappeared.”

“Unless…” Akechi finally speaks up, “The dress is not the original one. It may have the same design, but it may not be the power armour that you believe it to be.”

Togami huffs, “Then what? She didn’t know it was a fake? Wouldn’t she recognise that it wasn’t the same?”

Dick shakes his head, “Not necessarily… since coming here, I’ve had a different sense of depth and perception… actually, I think everyone else here feels the same.”

Monika folds her arms, “Really? I feel normal to be honest.”

“Akechi, you said you’ve never had such a strong reaction to seeing a crime scene before, right?” Dick asks him, reminding the detective of how he ran out of the kitchen, clutching his stomach, “As for me, I completely forgot protocol, and I’m a cop in the outside world. If we assume that we’ve all been feeling strange since coming here, it’s not necessarily impossible that Kiryuuin thought the dress was her real power armour. Isn’t that right, Kiryuuin?”

Staying quiet till now, she finally confirms his suspicions, “Yes. I truly believed that this dress was mine.”

Dick nods, “right, which was why you must’ve tried to wash off that particular part. Not to mention, Takamaki’s blood was all over her body and floor. If the blood on Kiryuuin belonged to Takamaki, she wouldn’t have only gotten it on her sleeve.”

Akechi points to Dick, “I believe you have one more piece of evidence that supports the idea that Kiryuuin did not commit the crime.”

Dick pulls out his notebook and looks over the evidence, “that’s right, the footprint in the pool of blood.”

Pamela raises an eyebrow, “Footprint? What footprint?”

Dick lifts up the notebook and points to Akechi’s writing, “We found a footprint in the pool of blood around Takamaki. We decided that it was a generic footprint, one that definitely couldn’t have been made by a heel or someone with large feet.”

Everyone looks down at their own feet, then at Kiryuuin’s thigh high heels.

Artemis is the first to point it out, “So unless Kiryuuin swapped shoes with someone, it couldn’t have been her.”

“Fine, if it’s not Kiryuuin, then why did the body discovery announcement only go off when we found the body?” Rose asks.

Akechi is quick to explain that as well, “Because she found the body on her own. Remember what I said before leaving the kitchen?”

“’The rules indicate that once three or more people discover a body, an announcement is made’” Dick quotes him from before, “It couldn’t have gone off if she was the only one who saw it.”

Kiryuuin nods, “Yes, and now that suspicion is off me, could we perhaps move on with the investigation?”

“Sorry guys,” Gaige says awkwardly, “And I guess sorry that I accused you.”

Monika shakes her head, “Wait, there’s one thing I would like to clear up first. Artemis said that Kiryuuin could have just switched shoes with someone. Maybe she could have had an accomplice who switched shoes and maybe even clothes with her.”

Togami shakes his head, “No. If the rules are the same as the other killing games, then only the murderer could benefit from killing someone. Accomplices are pointless.”

Tiny Tina jumps up, “Not if they didn’t know about that rule!”

Pamela nods, “Not just that, but Kiryuuin herself has some very loyal soldiers with her. Sanageyama, Gamagoori, you would die for her, wouldn’t you?”

Before the two of them can object to the statement, Akechi steps in, “none of them killed Takamaki, or acted as accomplices.”

“Huh?” Everyone turns to Akechi expectantly.

“We’ve established that someone with normal sized feet would have stepped in the blood, and if Gamagoori switched shoes with Kiryuuin then the footprint would have been way bigger, so we can exclude him.”

“What about Sanageyama then?” Ryuji asks and points to his feet, “Couldn’t he have helped her?”

Akechi shakes his head, “No, I don’t think its Sanageyama either. I think in order to solve this, we should start at the beginning and determine how exactly Takamaki was murdered.”

Babs nods, “I mean… I agree. Our lives are on the line, it wouldn’t hurt to be thorough.”

Tiny Tina once again perks up, “Well isn’t it supa dupa obvious? Takamaki got stab stabbed by Kiryuuin and she switched clothes with Sanageyama to hide her murder!”

Pamela looks over to Dick, “No, Akechi is right. There’s a reason why I know that no one swapped clothes with anyone. So do you, Grayson,”

Dick lifts up the stained cloth that Pamela had given him, “Right, Pamela found this white shred of material in one of the washing machines in the laundry room,” He reaches over to Sanageyama and feels his coat, “Yeah, it’s not the same material.”

Pamela grins, “Exactly. Although,” she now turns her attention to Akechi, “Dick was the only one who knew about that. Why did you think that Sanageyama was innocent?”

“Oh dayuuum,” Tiny Tina grins from behind her stand, “Yeah Akechi’s been acting super weird since we got here. Hey, hey, hey, maybe he killed her and try to blame Lady S for it?”

Akechi sighs, “I can’t say I’m surprised by this turn of events.”

Dick lifts an eyebrow, “Actually… now that I think about it, you didn’t hesitate to tamper with the evidence once we investigated it. And you were the only who even got close to Takamaki’s body.”

“Very well,” Akechi clears his throat, “if I had killed Takamaki, even if I had disposed of my shirt by tearing it and throwing it into the washing machine, how could I have disposed of the blood on my jacket?” He asks, pointing to it, “Leaving it in my room would have ran the risk of someone investigating it.”

“You washed it!” Gamagoori shouts, “That way you could have made us think you were innocent!”

“No that’s wrong,” Dick objects, and Akechi grins smugly, “He couldn’t have washed it, because Takamaki was killed at night time, when the water’s off, and he would’ve only been able to wash the coat after the morning announcement. Rose, I think you can tell us why that was impossible as well.”

Rose nods, “Yeah, I found Akechi in the dinning hall before the morning announcement. We were together until we found the body. He did run out of the kitchen to throw up, but I was with him the whole time. I may be missing an eye but I’m sure I would’ve noticed a big red blood stain on his jacket.”

“So, we’re back to nothing,” Gaige huffs, arms on her hips, “what do we do now?”

“As mentioned before,” Togami starts, “We discuss the matters of the case from start to finish. From there, we can determine who the true culprit of this case is.”

“Artemis,” Naegi looks over to her, then to Ryuji, “You and Ryuji were the last to see her, right?”

Artemis shakes her head, “I went to bed around midnight. Ryuji stayed with her for a bit after that.”

Ryuji nods, agreeing with her statement, “yeah, like I told Dick, Artemis went back to her room around midnight. I stayed with Ann till about 4. She went to get a drink and I went to bed.”

“And you didn’t hear anything?” Sanageyama asks, “That’s pretty suspicious.”

“It’s not,” Babs shakes her head, “Monokuma said it himself, the rooms are soundproofed. If he was in his room by the time Takamaki was killed, he wouldn’t have heard anything.”

“Perhaps there was nothing to hear in the first place,” Togami suggests, “Takamaki was stabbed in the back, the Monokuma file indicates as much. Then our culprit could have covered her mouth and surprised her.”

Akechi disagrees, “No, even if the culprit covered her mouth, there is one piece of evidence that suggests that we would’ve heard something if the walls weren’t soundproofed, right, Dick?”

Dick lifts the notebook up again and points to the evidence list, “That’s right, we found a glass on the floor. It was covered in blood, so someone must have dropped it when Takamaki was killed. A glass shattering against the tiles in the kitchen definitely would have made some noise.”

“That still of course, doesn’t exclude Sakamoto,” Togami points out morbidly, “We all know he was awake at 4 in the morning, and he could simply be lying about it.”

“What the hell man?! You seriously think I killed one of my friends?!” Ryuji shouts, but Dick calmly intervenes.

“No, I think what Togami said earlier explains why it couldn’t have been Ryuji. The Monokuma file mentioned the wound in her back. I think we can infer from how Takamaki was lying on her back that this was the first wound inflicted. Why surprise her when she would have already known that he was with her?”

“There is something else that proves Sakamoto’s innocence,” Artemis says, “I mean, we already established that the killer was wearing something white, but I’ve never seen a shred of white clothing on him.”

“There’s more,” Dick says, “We found an empty glass by the sink too. No one’s indicated that they left it there so we can assume that it belonged to Takamaki, or maybe even the killer.”

Monika gasps, “Wait but wouldn’t that mean that-,”

Kiryuuin cuts her off, “The killer and Takamaki had interacted with each other before Takamaki was murdered.”

“But wait,” Sanageyama cuts in, “How did she get the water anyway? We just said the water was off.”

Babs nods, “the water was off, yes, but there are water bottles in the fridge. I’m sure if we looked in the fridge now, they’ll be missing.”

“So then, the killer and Takamki both had a drink of water before the killer stabbed her,” Naegi infers, “But… we still don’t know what she stabbed her with, right? Rose mentioned that one of her katana’s was missing.”

Artemis cuts in before Rose answers, “no, the murder weapon couldn’t have been the katana. It’s too big to just conceal it, and we said that they definitely were together long enough for a drink of water.”

“There is something that bothers me, however,” Kiryuuin says, “If the katana wasn’t used, then why did someone cut the curtain? And how did they do it?”

“They must’ve used a knife from the kitchen, right?” Gaige guesses, but Akechi agrees with her.

“That is the only way, yes. But we have already established that the killer did not use the katana, therefore, I believe someone stole it before the murder had occurred.”

“What?! That’s inexcusable!” Gamagoori shouts.

Pamela sighs, “but if the murderer didn’t take it, then why bother discussing it right now? Let’s get on with the actual crime we’re here for. The knives in the kitchen must have been the murder weapon, right?”

“It’s the only explanation, yes,” Togami admits, “However, as I recall, Akechi mentioned to us that they were all clean.”

Akechi looks over to Dick once more, “While I did mention that, there is an explanation for why they were clean. I found that there was a stain on the wooden block around one of the knives. At first I thought it was blood, but then I realised that it was simply wet. This was because the killer cleaned the knife. You know what I’m referring to, yes?”

Dick nods, “The sink, there were drops of water around it. The killer probably washed the knife with the water in the glass and then put it back. But they made a mistake and stepped into the pool of blood. Wait…” He thinks back to when Akechi himself had stepped in the blood, “but if they did that, then they’d leave footprints everywhere else in the kitchen.”

“We found one other object in the sink, do you recall?” Akechi asks him, but before waiting for an answer, he pulls it out from his pocket, “I took it with me on our way to the lobby. Monokuma himself said that it was a burnt up rag, isn’t that right?” He looks over to the bear.

Monokuma stands up, “I told you it wasn’t important! But… I did say that, yeah,” he slumps back int his seat, “Anyway, I’m starting to get bored over here! Just tell everyone who the culprit is already!”

“Y-you know?!” Ryuji shouts, “For real?! And you’re not saying anything?!”

Akechi sighs, “You, Sakamoto, trust me the least. I’m sure you understand why I wanted to talk about the evidence first before I said who committed the crime. I did witness it, after all.”

“And you said nothing?!” Artemis shouts at him as well, “what is wrong with you?!”

“Not five minutes ago were you all accusing me of killing Takamaki,” Akechi points out, “without the evidence that Dick has presented to all of you, it would have been my word against theirs.”

Dick looks down at the notebook, “That’s… that’s what you meant earlier…”

_The screen switches off, and Dick hands the notebook back over to Akechi. Instead of accepting it, Akechi pushes it closer to him, “Oh, I have it all memorised. For the duration of the trial, I believe it may be of more use to you than it may to me.”_

Akechi nods, “Although, I would still like to see if you can tell me who it is that committed the crime.”

Dick thinks through all of the evidence, all of the actions Akechi had taken, the questions he asked, and suddenly, he thinks back to when the young detective questioned Gamagoori.

_Akechi hums in thought again, “We… may have to ask her about it when we get the chance,” he scribbles down Gamagoori’s answer before asking him his other question, “Earlier I saw you in the corridor in nothing more than a towel and wet hair. Care to explain yourself?”_

_“Lady Satsuki had called out for me when I was swimming in the pool after she found the body. Didn’t have a chance to get changed in my room until after I started spreading word about it.”_

_“Hmm… very well then, I suppose that is all for now,” Akechi closes his notebook and walks out of the kitchen. Dick runs over and catches up to him._

_“What was that about?”_

_“Kiryuuin herself said it. How long after the morning announcement did we find the body?”_

_Dick shrugs, “It couldn’t have been that long after 7? Maybe 7:05… Kiryuuin said she found the body two minutes before so I’d say 7:03 for her.”_

_Akechi nods, agreeing with him, “Yes I think that is correct. I saw everyone leave their rooms shortly after Gamagoori started pounding on doors, and as we experienced yesterday, not everyone wakes up for the morning announcement.”_

The answer clicks, and Dick turns his attention to Gamagoori, “Gamagoori, what did Artemis look like when you knocked on her door?”

“What?!” Artemis asks, “Please tell me this has something to do with the case.”

“It does, don’t worry,” Dick reassures her, and turns to Gamagoori once again.

“She… well, she was getting water everywhere, and she just had a towel wrapped around her,” Gamagoori explains, clearly uncomfortable, “I think I heard a shower running.”

“You think Artemis is the killer?” Babs asks, not wanting to believe it for a second, but Dick shakes his head,

Akechi smirks, “Of course he doesn’t think that, because he has already established who the real killer is. Would you care to share with us?”

Dick grits his teeth at how nonchalant Akechi sounded. If he was right, then it would be as if he were sentencing the killer to death. If he was wrong, then they would all die, and the killer would be free. He glances over to Akechi, who’s smug attitude clearly indicated that he knew exactly what he was doing by making Dick reveal who the killer was.

“The only one here who could have killed Ann Takamaki, is Monika.”

Everyone looks in her direction, and her eyes go wide, “Are you being serious? Why would I kill her? What proof do you have?!”

“Your hair earlier, it was damp, but it wasn’t as wet as Artemis’,” he points out.

“So? Maybe it dries quicker?”

Togami shakes his head, “no, that’s not it at all. Gamagoori, when you went to Monika’s room, what did she look like?”

“She looked exactly like she does right now,” Gamagoori says. Monika tries to object, but Gamagoori continues, “And before you say that you were already done and drying your hair, I want to add that I didn’t see you with a towel in your hand!”

Monika looks around, but no one seems to be giving her any sympathy, “Even if I killed her, you already said that the water was off, so how could I have showered before then?!”

“The water bottles,” Babs says, “You knew there was water in the fridge already, so you took those to your room and poured them on yourself to get the blood off you.”

“What about my blazer then?” Monika points to her school jacket, “I would’ve gotten blood on that too! But as you can all see, it clean and dry!”

Silence falls over the room as the rest of the group think about her statement. Dick looks over to Akechi, who was remaining silent this whole time. Was it even true that he saw everything? Wouldn’t he have said something?

“Your shirt,” Dick whispers to himself, clears his throat and repeats himself, “You didn’t wear your blazer when you went to the kitchen, or your sweater. You’re using them both up to cover your shirt. That wouldn’t stop us from seeing your sleeves but...” he lifts up the white material from earlier, “This is part of your sleeve, isn’t it?”

Naegi looks from the material to Monika, “If you’re innocent, then take off your blazer and your sweater!”

“No!” Gamagoori shouts and points accusingly at Naegi, “A request such as this is unbecoming of you! You cannot simply ask a woman to remove her clothes!”

Rose rolls her eyes, “Fine, then what if some of the girls went with her to the bathroom and checked? Would you be happy then?”

Gamagoori hums, “I suppose that would be far less controversial.”

“Agreed!” Monokuma jumps up, “This is a court after all! I will not allow anyone in here to strip!”

“Strip?” Sanageyama asks, “All we’re asking her to do is show us her shirt, not get naked.”

“Ya know,” Tiny Tina says, “We could just ask her to roll up her sleeves? If those are her sleeves,” she points to the material in Dick’s hand, “then she shouldn’t have any.”

Everyone looks to Monika expectantly, but she doesn’t move. Instead, she stands there, smiling.

Kiryuuin, tired of waiting, grabs Monika by her arm and pulls up her blazer’s sleeve. Just as expected, there was nothing there, “I suppose then, this trial is over.”

Monika slowly stops smiling and clutches the stand. She looks down, slowly, hiding her face from everyone. Her body begins to shake and her knuckles turn white as she holds onto the stand with all of her strength, “B-but this… it’s not possible… none of you should’ve solved this… none of you are real...” she looks up, her face covered in tears, “TELL ME THEN, WAS TAKAMAKI REAL?!”

“Woah!” Gaige exclaims, “What’s wrong with her now?”

“TELL ME!”

“I think she’s gone crazy,” Rose says to her violent reaction.

“HOW CAN ANY OF YOU BE REAL?! YOU’RE ALL JUST CHARACTERS IN A FUCKING GAME. WE ALL ARE. NONE OF YOU ARE SENTIENT SO HOW THE HELL COULD YOU KNOW IT WAS ME?!”

“Game?” Babs raises an eyebrow, “What is she talking about?”

Akechi, finally deciding to re-join the debate, pulls out an e-handbook. He shows it to everyone, however instead of ‘Ultimate Detective’ like everyone expected, what was written across it was ‘Ultimate AI’, “None of you knew Monika before we arrived here, correct?” He asks, and everyone, except for the now sobbing Monika, shakes their head, “This handbook belongs to her. I stole it from her when we were all in the kitchen together.”

Pamela stops him from further explaining, “But having someone else’s handbook is against the rules, isn’t it? Why didn’t Monokuma punish you?”

“Because the rules specify that the owner of the handbook cannot lend their own handbook. It does not indicate that I cannot steal it,” Akechi points out, and Monokuma confirms.

“That’s right! As long as Monika didn’t know that Akechi took her handbook, it was fair game!” He replies cheerfully.

“So I stole it because I thought that it would help me understand why she killed Takamaki,” Akechi unlocks the e-handbook and goes to a video file, “I watched it in the library while Dick had gone to talk to Sakamoto. I won’t show it to you now as I believe that Monika should still retain some sense of privacy, however all you need to know is that Monika was lead to believe that we were all characters in a game, and that killing, or rather, deleting our files, did not actually have an impact on real people.”

“Why… why would she believe something as crazy as that?” Ryuji asks.

“I have no proof of this but… if we are all from various worlds then I believe that Monika is truly a character from a game where she is self-aware. Is that correct?”

She doesn’t reply.

Dick sighs, “I… think Akechi’s right. She showed me a poem she wrote the other day. It didn’t make sense then but if you read it knowing that Monika is an artificial intelligence in her own world, it makes perfect sense. The poem wasn’t about how you met your friend, it’s a cry for help, right?”

She’s still crying and not listening to anyone. Akechi simply sighs, “Perhaps if we explain the entire case to her then she will finally listen to us?”

Dick glances over to her and sighs as well, “Well, here’s what happened.”

* * *

**CLOSING ARGUMENT**

_Last night, Ryuji had been comforting Takamaki the whole night. At around 4 AM, Takamaki decided to get a drink._

_Ryuji decided to go back to his own room. At the same time, Takamaki went to the kitchen to get herself a drink. Since the water didn’t work, she grabbed a bottle from the fridge. Not long after, the killer stepped into the kitchen as well. Takamaki most likely poured them a drink, but while she was doing that, the killer grabbed the knife from the wooden block, and stabbed her in the back._

_At that moment, Takamaki dropped the glass on the floor, and it shattered. After she fell, the killer probably turned her around and stabbed her multiple times in the chest and abdominal regions just to make sure that she was in fact dead._

_After that, the killer started disposing of the evidence. First, they had to get rid of the blood on the knife. There was still water in Takamaki’s glass, so they probably used that over the sink, which would explain why both of them still had some drops of water on them three hours later._

_The killer tried to put the knife back into the wooden block but had accidentally stepped in the pool of blood forming around Takamaki. They put the knife back and grabbed the new kitchen rag to wipe o their shoe. However, that meant that the rag now had blood on it._

_The killer knew about the ventilation shaft and the traps set inside and threw the rag up. It caught fire, and as it fell, the killer grabbed it and left it to burn in the sink. They knew it would work because that’s how they destroyed the previous rag. Unfortunately for them, the rag couldn’t burn entirely, and pieces of it were left behind._

_From there, the killer had two more pieces of evidence to dispose. They knew they wouldn’t be able to clean and dry their shirt in time, so they decided to conceal it instead. The killer ripped off part of their sleeve that had blood on it and tried to mix it in with the rest of the laundry in the washing machine._

_After that, the killer only had to dispose of the blood on their own body. The water was still off, so they had to use something else. They went back into the kitchen, grabbed as many water bottles as they could, and went back to their room where they cleaned the blood of themselves with the water._

_When morning came, they couldn’t risk leaving their shirt in the room in case we would inspect it, and so, they put it on and covered it with a sweater and blazer. Covering their shirt with a sweater and blazer wouldn’t have made any of suspicious, and that was because the killer wore that same outfit every day._

_It’s the only solution, which would make you the culprit, Monika._

* * *

With Dick’s closing argument, everyone turns their attention to Monika once more. She’s still crying, but this time somewhat calmer.

“It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for!” Monokuma exclaims from his seat, “You must now cast your votes for who you think the killer is!”

A small lever appears on the stand in front of Dick. Reluctantly, he takes a hold of it.

“Please use the lever in front of you to make your selection. Oh, and you have to vote for someone, or else you’ll get punished as well!” Monokuma blushes, “Who will be chosen as the blackened? Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? What’s it gonna be? What’s it gonna beeee?!” Monokuma cheers on.

Dick desperately didn’t want to indicate anyone as the killer. Even though he solved the mystery, even though Monika was the only one who could’ve done it, he couldn’t, or rather, didn’t want to believe that anyone here was the killer.

Not long after he makes his choice, a screen above Monokuma lights up. Everyone’s faces scroll past just like a slot machine, and a drumroll plays until eventually all three pictures stop, showing three Monika’s. On the screen, the words ‘GUILTY’ appear and coins pour out of the machine on screen, with confetti falling over it and cheers sounding from every speaker in the room.

“Looks like you all got it right!” Monokuma stands up, “The blackened in this case was none other than Monika! She is the one who killed Ann Takamaki!”

No one could look at Monika anymore, not after they were forced to vote for her.

However, she finally gives an explanation, “If… if I could just delete one of you then I could have gone back to my literature club, to my friends…. It wouldn’t have made a difference if one of you had died, you were all just supposed to be files, computer code… fake. The rules of this game were simple, as long as I killed someone I could get out of here but… that’s not how the real world works, huh?” She looks up finally and wipes away her tears, “I’m truly sorry… I didn’t mean to kill Takamaki,” she looks over to Ryuji, “I don’t expect you, or anyone else here to forgive me but…”

Ryuji is the only one who looks her in the eye, “no, it ain’t your fault. Not entirely. That fucking bear is the one who made you do it!” He looks over to Monokuma, “If it weren’t for him putting us all here, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place! If it weren’t for him, Ann would still be here!”

“Bwuahahahah!” Monokuma laughs, but then suddenly his red eye begins to glow and his claws come out, “Do you really think that all it took was a little video to kill your friend? If you couldn’t kill before, then you would all still be living in peace! Anyway, enough with all of this chatter!”

“Wait…” Monika says, “before that, I’d like to say something.”

“What now?!”

“You were right,” she looks over to Dick, “Takamaki and I did talk, even if it was just for a little bit. She told me about the video, which I guess was what made me… anyway, she wanted you all to stay positive.”

* * *

_I can’t imagine what it’s like to see a close friend fall into such despair, and yet, she wanted to stay by Shiho’s side, and help her through her worst moments._

“You know, Shiho was the first person to ever talk to me in my school, outside of teachers and stuff,” _Takamaki had told me,_ “I mean, she was kind of a jerk to me but it was refreshing, and we laughed it off. I just… I know the videos are all nonsense, but it looked so real… but no, I can’t let that get to me. If killing someone is what gets you out, then I guess I’ll spend the rest of my life here. It’s not all bad, actually, I met some really great people… I just hope everyone can get along.”

* * *

“Even in her last moments, all she could think of was her friends,” Monika smiles gently, “I… I’m jealous, really. I guess I won’t be that fortunate, huh?”

“Yap, yap, yap!” Monokuma exclaims, “Well then, I’ve prepared a very special punishment for you, the Ultimate Artificial Intelligence! Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s PUNISHMENT TIIIME!”

Monokuma pulls out a gavel, and a big red button emerges in front of him. He smacks it with the gavel, and the monitor above him changes images. In the middle of a red screen, a black and white 8-bit version of Monika appears. Above her is written ‘GAME OVER’ in white pixels on a black background. A similar 8-bit version of Monokuma appears from the left side of the screen as some 8-bit sound effects come on and makes its way over to a distressed looking Monika. Bellow them some text is typed out, ‘MONIKA HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY.’

As the bear reaches Monika, the pixels change and Monokuma is dragging Monika away by a rope, with her thrashing her feet around on the ground. The final bit of text is typed out, ‘TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!’

The screen blurs out, and next thing they know, Monika and Monokuma are no longer in the room. The screen switches on again, this time showing the real Monika and Monokuma.

* * *

**HAPPY END**

Monika stands at the front of a classroom. The desks in front of her are filled, but it’s all Monokuma’s, all of them in a similar school uniform to hers. Behind on the blackboard is a list, or it appears to be a list but it’s just random words.

She starts to read from her notepad, but no one in the courtroom hears it over the blaring music coming from the speakers.

As she reads her poem, certain Monokuma’s disappear as do parts of the room. The more she reads, the more things begin to glitch. One Monokuma’s eyes and mouth are replaced by dark squares, another Monokuma’s eyes go missing, a different one gets all too realistic looking eyes, and another clearly has a snapped neck with how it’s head was angled, but all of them continue to cheer for Monika, the words of the blackboard also change until they no longer make sense.

Towards the end of her poem, she throws the notepad and runs out of the class but finds that there is nothing but an empty void.

From her right, a file menu appears with everyone’s titles, but with Takamaki’s crossed out. A mouse moves towards the file reading ‘ULTIMATE_POET.chr’, taps it, and the file disappears from the menu.

Monika suddenly finds herself scattered into a hundred different pieces, each of which flicker and disappear, one after another until there is nothing left.

* * *

“Ahahahahahahahah!” Monokuma reappears in the courtroom once the screen switches off, laughing and holding his belly, “Didn’t that just fill you right up with despair!”

“Shut. Up,” Babs says with a clenched fist, “we went through your stupid trial, so just let us get back upstairs.”

The elevator doors open slowly, and without making a noise, everyone walks in that direction. Everyone except Dick.

He walks over to Monika’s stand and finds the same notepad she had with her when she showed him the poem. Just like everything else it seemed, Dick guessed that the notepad Monika had with her in the video was probably a fake. He picks up her notepad and takes it back with him.

Monika never wanted to hurt anyone real.

Dick could tell as much from the poem.

All she wanted, was to be with her literature club.


	6. Love Breaks All Boundaries- END

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first trial is over, however the killing hotel life is anything but.

“What’s that in your hand?” Babs asks Dick as soon as he gets onto the elevator. He holds up the notepad that Monika had left behind to give her a closer look.

“I know it’s morbid for me to keep it but… she left it behind for a reason, right?” Dick asks.

Akechi hums from the back of the elevator, “Perhaps she wished to be remembered.”

“Do us a favour, Akechi, and shut up,” Ryuji says angrily, and when Dick looks down he sees that his fists are clenched. The elevator doors open and everyone starts making their way out.

“Did I do something wrong?” Akechi asks innocently once he too leaves the elevator. The red doors close behind them and Dick hears a clicking noise, indicating that the door was once again locked.

“Something wrong?!” Ryuji can’t take it anymore, and he grabs Akechi by the collar and shoves him against the wall, “You saw Monika kill Ann and you didn’t do anything?! Don’t tell me you couldn’t take her! Just the other day you manhandled me and stopped me from beatin’ the crap out of Monokuma!”

Togami smirks from behind Ryuji, “Man has a point, Akechi. If anything, you could’ve woken up someone else and we would have gotten this over and done with much quicker.”

“You’re one to talk,” Naegi mutters, but amidst the arguing between Ryuji and Akechi, no one hears him.

Akechi, despite having the strength to fight back, simply smiles back, “Now, what good would it have done after Monika had stabbed Takamaki? And tell me, Sakamoto, if I came to your door and informed you that Monika had stabbed her, Monika could have simply said that I was the one who stabbed her. Who would you have believed more? The detective who blackmailed you, or the innocent poet?”

Ryuji lets go of him and Akechi fixes his jacket, “Besides, this trial was far more just without my witness statement, would you not agree?”

“Is that seriously all you care about?! Justice?! You call what happened in there justice?!” Ryuji shouts, pointing to the red doors.

“Sakamoto!” Kiryuuin shouts, “Get a hold of yourself!”

“What? You’re on his side now?!” Ryuji asks her, still shouting.

Akechi smirks, “I would hardly call asking you to calm yourself picking a side.”

Artemis is the next to intervene, however no one expects her next move. With her right hand, she slaps Akechi across the face, hard.

A red mark is left on his cheek, and he slowly turns his head towards Artemis, waiting for an explanation.

“Fighting and riling each other up isn’t helping,” Artemis says, voice much calmer than anyone else’s so far, “You’re all playing right into Monokuma’s hands. So, Akechi, stop being such a self-righteous douche and use your detective skills to get us out of here. Ryuji,” she turns to him, “I’m sorry about what happened, but you can’t let your emotions get the best of you. You’ll have time to mourn the dead once we’re out of here. Until then, let’s all work together. We’re not each others enemies, not in here.”

Naegi nods, “She’s right, the only real enemy here is Monokuma, and whoever is controlling him.”

Ryuji continues clenching his fist, but eventually, he relaxes it, “Fine. But only if Akechi actually stops being an ass.”

Akechi sighs, “I’ll see what I can do… and in the interest of that, I will tell you who broke into the storage room last night.”

“You saw what happened with that too?” Pamela ask, and Akechi gives a curt nod.

“I was up all of last night and so I heard and saw everything that had happened. I… was unable to sleep after seeing my own video and already suffer from night terrors,” Akechi explains, “And so, I spent the night reading, hoping that maybe one of the books in the library was perhaps a clue indicating who the true culprit was. While reading in the dining hall, I saw someone walking past the door and into the kitchen. That person,” he points to the youngest member of the group, “Was you, Tina.”

“I didn’t kill nobody! I swear!” Tiny Tina shouts, “I wasn’t plannin’ on doin’ any of you in either!”

“Then why steal my katana?” Rose asks.

Tiny Tina shuffles around awkwardly while staring at her feet, “Cause… cause I got scared, ya know? Those videos were pretty freaky, and I’m the youngest one here. I wasn’t gonna kill nobody but maybe someone thought that I’d be the easiest to kill. I’m the Ultimate Demolitionist, and I can’t do much without ma ladies so…”

“Ladies?” Gamagoori asks for clarification.

“I believe she is referring to her bombs,” Togami explains for her, and Sanageyama turns his attention to him.

“How did you know she was talking about that?”

Togami sighs and fixes his glasses, “I have some… experience with psychotic women, trust me.”

Rose grins, “I don’t think I even wanna know what you get up to in your free time but…” she stretches and yawns, “That investigation and trial kinda took a lot for me so if you guys don’t mind, I’m gonna head off to bed now.”

Dick glances over to the clock on the wall above the reception, “It’s nearly night time, I guess I might as well get my own rest too.”

Slowly, everyone agrees and the remaining guests all go back to their rooms.

All but two.

* * *

Around midnight, Akechi walks into the library to put back the book he’d finished. Unfortunately, it was once again of no use to him. As he reaches for another book, one that sounded more promising, he hears someone cough in the corner of the library. Cautiously, he makes his way over and finds Babs sitting on the floor with her e-handbook in her hand, “Gordon? What are you doing in the library?”

“Shh!” She shushes him and pulls him down to the ground. She points at the camera above her, “Don’t tell anyone else about this, but the camera above us doesn’t work,” she whispers, “There’s still the other camera in here, but it won’t pick up the sounds we’re making unless we whisper… although, I already have a theory that the mastermind behind this doesn’t even watch us at ‘night time’.”

Getting more comfortable, he takes a seat next to her and sets his book on the ground, “What makes you say that?”

“I mean… most of us are young adults, or at least older teens,” Babs points out, “Why bother giving us a curfew, why bother setting up a rule making us specifically quiet in the halls at night?”

Akechi smirks, “Ah, I see. It would limit our activities during the time that the mastermind was sleeping, and yet… here we are.”

Babs chuckles, “Like I said, young adults,” she shuts off her e-handbook and stands back up, “would you like some coffee?”

Akechi looks to the clock hanging to the wall, “It’s ten past midnight, although I suppose I could go for some herbal tea.”

* * *

Silence hangs over the dining hall as Akechi and Babs take sips of their tea. After the trial, the entire kitchen had been cleaned and there was no sign that a murder ever took place.

Once he sets down his teacup, Akechi speaks up, “For a librarian, you seemed quite calm about the whole ordeal. I could say the same of your archer friend and the dual-wielder.”

Babs grins, “Guess that you’re not the Ultimate Detective for nothing, huh?” She sets down her own teacup, “Well, if Monika was from a game, then I suppose that we could all be from various worlds, and there is no harm in me saying this,” she takes in a deep breath before explaining, “in the outside world, I’m a masked vigilante known as Batgirl. I lead a team which Artemis and Rose are a part of, one that Dick used to lead,” she confesses, “But when it comes to grizzly murders, well… Gotham’s one of the worst. The four of us actually live or lived there for some time so we know what it’s like. After dealing with the crap that we’ve dealt with… it doesn’t get easier, but you learn to adapt pretty quickly,” she lifts her teacup once more, “what’s your story then? You don’t get the title of Ultimate Detective in the presence of an actual cop for nothing.”

Akechi looks down at the cup in front of him, “I suppose… it all started with a personal grudge. My mother, she died when I was quite young, and my father had abandoned her before I was even born. Because of him, I spent most of my life jumping between orphanages and foster homes.”

Babs sighs, “Have you met your father since?”

Akechi chuckles, “Unfortunately yes. He is as much of a self-righteous, arrogant dick since the day he abandoned my mother,” he admits.

“Wow, I think that’s the first time I heard you swear,” Babs points out, “So, guess he didn’t take the news too well?”

“He doesn’t know,” Akechi shakes his head, “All he cares about is power and fame. But just as every other politician, the way he strives for it is far from noble.”

“Is that why you became a detective?”

Akechi tilts his head from side to side, “In a sense… I suppose yes,” he drinks the rest of his tea, “I apologise for how nonchalant I may have acted in the previous days. I hoped that perhaps by becoming the antagonist I could prevent any murders from happening.”

Babs finishes her own tea and sets down the cup, “Wouldn’t us hating you push us to kill you?”

Akechi shrugs, “I like to think that I could fight off perhaps half of you. But no, I didn’t truly believe that someone would kill me. I was merely pointing out all of the possibilities so that you would all be aware of them and take precautions. Of course, I had no idea Monokuma would act so quickly.”

“None of us could’ve known… I guess you’re not going to let anyone find out about our conversation, huh?”

“If I did, I’d have to kill you,” Akechi smirks, but Babs doesn’t find his morbid joke as funny as he’s hoped, “I apologise… my odd behaviour may just be some coping mechanism for our situation. However, your discretion is appreciated.”

“Just as I thought,” Babs smiles a little, “But in all seriousness, even though you were withholding some crucial information, you did help us in the investigation and trial… so, I’d like to ask you to help me with a little something that I’ve been working on. You in?”

“Will it get me in trouble?”

“Probably.”

“Very well, I suppose there's little reason for me to deny your request in these circumstances. Tell me, what are you planning?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Along with this story, I’ve made some fan art/gifs/etc because my need to procrastinate is that bad. It’s also where I’ll post if any updates regarding this story and any others I write. If you’re interested, check it out here:
> 
> https://pancakeprince56.tumblr.com
> 
> Also, I am reading all your comments and enjoying every single one of them, but until I finish this story I unfortunately won’t be replying to any of them. Though feel free to hit me up on that tumblr and I’ll reply to the best of my ability.


	7. A Life of Crime- Daily Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is forced to move on and continue their search for an escape route. Meanwhile, Monokuma gets bored once more and introduces a new motive.

Dick awakes to the sound of knocking against his door. He scrambles out of bed and runs over to the door, opening it immediately, “Did something happen?”

“Good morning to you too,” Togami replies monotonously, “If by something you mean we found another body, then no. Have you seen the stairs near the storage room?”

Dick shakes his head, “other than the investigation, I haven’t even been to the storage room.”

“Then get dressed and head over there immediately. We’ve grown tired of waiting for you,” Togami says ominously, but walks away before Dick manages to even ask him what that meant.

Nonetheless, he does as he’s told and without taking any detours, goes straight to the storage room.

He’s the last one there, and clearly the other guests had been waiting for him for some time. But there was something off... someone was definitely missing.

“Did you miss the morning announcement?” Gaige asks him.

“Morning… what?” Dick asks, “What time is it?”

“You slept through the morning announcement?” Ryuji smirks, “Is that even possible?”

Tiny Tina giggles, “Monokuma didn’t kick your butt for it?”

Dick scratches his head, extremely confused. The morning announcement was always extremely loud, not to mention Monokuma’s voice was irritating enough to wake up even the heaviest of sleepers, “I… don’t know. I guess it didn’t go off in my room.”

“Tardiness is inexcusable!” Gamagoori shouts, “If you can’t wake for one alarm, you set three!”

“Uh…”

Akechi clears his throat, “Moving on. There is something we would like to see, everyone together.”

Babs grabs Dick by the arm and leads him over to a corridor behind the storage room. Last he remembered, there definitely wasn’t a corridor, not to mention stairs at the end of it that lead to the second floor, “What’s this?”

“Monokuma called it an upgrade for solving the class trial correctly,” Naegi explains, “It’s the same as last time, the more class trials we go through, the more places he’ll open up.”

“It’s incentive,” Rose says, “Or an attempt to give us false hope that any of us will get out of here alive.”

“We _will_ get out of here alive,” Dick reassures them and takes a few steps forward before Sanageyama pulls out his bamboo sword and blocks his path, “Is there a reason you don’t want us looking upstairs? Or is your boss currently setting up a surprise for us?”

Tina, Artemis, Gaige, Ryuji, Naegi and Pamela glance around the room while the rest stand still, watching Dick and Sanageyama.

“I can count to fourteen, I can only guess that Kiryuuin is upstairs already,” Dick points out, passing under the sword and walks towards the stairs, “You sure you guys don’t want to tell us what she’s up to?”

Sanageyama lowers his sword, “She’s upstairs checking for traps.”

Akechi smirks, “noble, however, unnecessary,” he says, walking behind the two, “Monokuma clearly has a reason for keeping us here. To kill us off with a mere trap seems… out of character.”

Pamela too walks ahead, but she shakes her head, “You really think that a psychopath like the one controlling that bear is so predictable? You have far too much faith in patterns, detective.”

“So, you’re glad Kiryuuin went in first?” Babs asks her, to which Pamela shrugs.

“Better her than me.”

“Have you seriously not learned anything from the last trial?” Artemis asks her as the group make their way upstairs, “Being an asshole just for the sake of proving that you’re the worst person around isn’t going to help anyone.”

“And pretending that we’re all close friends will?” Pamela laughs and pauses at the top of the stairs, “If you haven’t noticed, it’s everyone for themselves here. If you don’t kill someone, maybe someone will kill you or get you killed at Monokuma’s hands.”

“No, there is one way out of this,” Naegi says, “If we find out who’s behind all of this, we’ll all be free.”

Pamela rolls her eyes at the false hope Naegi was trying to give them, “And do you have any idea for who the real person behind Monokuma is?” Silence, “I gathered as much,” she walks down the hall and almost bumps into Kiryuuin.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Wherever I desire.”

The green skinned woman disappears down the hall, and none of the others bother calling out for her. Instead, Togami walks over to Kiryuuin, “for what exact reason did you come up here by yourself?”

Kiryuuin glances over to her two subordinates, “Have Sanageyama and Gamagoori not explained it to you? I was searching for traps-.”

“Give me a break, that’s not why you were here,” Togami replies, and before she can argue back, Akechi grabs the piece of paper in her hand as he walks by.

He unwraps the paper and reads out loud, “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, pull? What is this?”

“It’s the Konami code,” Barbara explains and snatches the paper from him to read it, “Almost anyway. It’s a famous cheat code,” she looks to Kiryuuin, “Where did you find this?”

Kiryuuin snatches the paper back from Akechi, who doesn’t fight back, “It was in a bin in one of the conference rooms. I did not want to show it to you all in an open area in case Monokuma didn’t want us to find it.”

“Damn right I don’t!” Monokuma jumps between the group seemingly out of nowhere and lunges at Kiryuuin. She dodges him easily and he falls to the ground, “Hey! Just what do ya think you’re doing! Gimme that!” He jumps up and down, trying to reach for the paper. Instead, Kiryuuin hands it over to Gamagoori who holds it out of everyone’s reach.

“Then I was right, it is somehow you don’t want us to see.”

“What kind of person goes through someone’s garbage anyway?!” Monokuma stomps angrily on the ground, “What kind of pig does that?”

“Pig?” Kiryuuin questions.

“Oh crap,” the others hear Sanageyama whisper.

Kiryuuin grabs Sanageyama’s sword and strikes at Monokuma. She stops at the last second before she actually touches him, “Heed my words, Monokuma. I am no pig. I am the one who will lead everyone against you. My resolve is never ending! I will see to it that your head will be waved on a spike!”

Monokuma pauses his stomping and stands still. There’s silence amongst the entire group until suddenly the bear bursts out laughing, “That’s what I like to hear! Ya got balls, Lady S, I’ll give ya that! Okay fine, just cos you made me laugh, I’ll let ya keep that paper, free of charge,” he walks past the group and down the stairs.

“Dayuuuum!” Tiny Tina cheers, “that was badass! No wonder you’re the Ultimate Leader. Hey, hey, hey, think you could do it again?!”

Kiryuuin calmly hands Sanageyama his bamboo sword back, “it would be foolish to risk angering Monokuma once more. Moving forward, I think you may find the facilities here quite… interesting. I suggest you all split up.”

“Yeah okay,” Dick looks around while Kiryuuin walks back downstairs with Gamagoori. Sanageyama chooses to stay behind with the rest, “Sanageyama, Togami, Tina, we’ll go check out those conference rooms Kiryuuin mentioned.”

Barbara points down the corridor, “I think I can see some of those computers down there. Akechi, Rose, mind coming with me?”

Ryuji, Gaige, Artemis and Naegi all move to the remaining door left in the corridor. Ryuji is the first one there and he cautiously opens the door. Inside, the floors are covered in carpet and slot machines and multiple tables meant for playing blackjack, poker, craps and other gambling games spread around the large hall, “For real?!”

“Oh cool!” Gaige grins and follows him inside, “It’s a casino! Hey, maybe Monokuma wants us to have some fun after all.”

“Unlikely,” Artemis says, “I mean, do any of even have any money?”

“You don’t need money here!” Monokuma says, appearing on top of a blackjack table, “In here, you can only use monocoins!”

As soon as he says those words, coins begin to pour from the ceiling. Artemis picks one of them up, but it feels like a cheap, plastic token in her hands. On both sides is Monokumas face, “Is this even worth anything?”

“Of course it is!” Monokuma growls, “If you win a certain amount of coins, I’ll even give you a special prize! The Ultimate Prize! Maybe it’ll even be a way to escape! Uhuhuhuh!” He covers his mouth.

“Like hell you will!” Ryuji shouts, “These games are all rigged, aren’t they?!”

Naegi nods before Monokuma can give him a reply, “Of course they are, he’s not going to give up something vital to our escape so easily. But… it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t look around here. Maybe we’ll find something actually useful here.”

* * *

Kiryuuin sits at the end of the table in the dinning hall, calmly sipping tea as the others slowly make their way back into the hall, “Did you find what you were looking for?”

Ryuji pulls a chair up and rubs the back of his neck, “We found a goddamn casino.”

Akechi, walking into the dinning hall at that moment, chuckles, “Ah, I don’t suppose it has anything to do with Sae’s Palace, does it?”

Ryuji pushes himself away from the table by his leg and starts balancing on the hind legs of the chair, placing his feet on the edge of the table, “Doesn’t look like it. Why? You still thinkin’ we might be in the metaverse?”

As more and more guests walk in, they all sit down at the dinning hall table, including Akechi. The only one missing was Pamela, but no one from the group seemed particularly worried about her absence, “I’m not quite sure what to think of this place. Nothing about our situation makes any logical sense.”

“There’s a computer room on the second floor,” Babs moves on, “Akechi, Rose and I looked through as many of the computers as we could but half had some kind of advanced encryption on it, while the rest had nothing on them. Although, we did find something interesting.”

Rose pulls out a piece of paper, this one a folded neatly unlike the crumpled piece of paper Kiryuuin had and shows it to everyone, “It’s some kind of list but none of us really know what it means…”

**‘ _THE ULTIMATE DESPAIR PROJECT_**

_Constant 1 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 2 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 3 **: DEAD**_

_Constant 4 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 5 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 6 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 7 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 8 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 9 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 10 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 11 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 12 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 13 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 14 **: FAILED**_

_Constant 15 **: FAILED**_

_Constant **16: UNKNOWN**_ **‘**

“On one of the computers, that was the only file,” Akechi informs the rest, “Barbara thought it best to print it and bring it to you all.”

“The Ultimate Despair Project… is that what this is?” Artemis asks, reading over the list, “But then… that means whoever’s in charge of this did this 16 times. And if one of them says ‘dead’, then what does failed mean?”

As Rose sets the list down on the table for anyone else to take a look at, Togami speaks up,  “If we are to assume that this is list refers to an experiment, and that we are the 16th one, then perhaps this ‘constant’ is not the killing game, but one of us?”

“Sure but…” Gaige trails off, “Wouldn’t someone here remember being part of a killing game fifteen other times?”

“Not if their memory was wiped,” Naegi points out, and quickly adds, “It happened to me and Togami in the killing school life. Before that started, we didn’t even know that we’d been in the same class for the past year.”

Babs shakes her head, “Whether our memories were wiped or not is still possible but I don’t think this is referring to one person, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to continue their experiment after the third trial,” she points over to where it reads ‘dead.’

“Oh! Oh! Oh!” Tina jumps up, “I know this one!”

Gamagoori quickly interjects, “If that was the same person, they would have been dead after the third killing game!”

Tiny Tina narrows her eyes at Gamagoori, “It’s rude to interrupt, jerkface!”

“Jerkface?!” Gamagoori stands up and bows to her, “I sincerely apologise for the rude interruption! It will never happen again!”

“Moving on,” Kiryuuin says, setting down her teacup, “if the ‘constant’ is not a person, then what is it referring to? And why did it die on the third trial?”

Silence overcomes the room, until finally Dick sighs, “it’s definitely something, but I don’t think we have enough to solve this,” He looks over to Babs, Akechi and Rose, “But good work guys, I’m sure in the bigger picture this will be more useful. Anyway, while they found that, Sanageyama, Tiny Tina, Togami and I went to the conference rooms. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really anything else there.”

“Seems like we had more luck,” Artemis says, but she’s cut off by Ryuji’s snort, “What?”

“We found a casino but all it gives you are these crappy coins,” Ryuji throws a monocoin on the table, “They ain’t worth shit, and everything in there is rigged against us.”

Akechi hums, “If they are all automated, then perhaps there is a way to hack into them?”

Naegi shakes his head, “Ryuji had the same idea actually when we realised everything was automated but we couldn’t really find anywhere you could do that. Not without breaking into one of the machines anyway.”

“You sure you can’t do anything about it?” Rose asks, turning to Dick, “Word on the team was that back in the day you were a pretty skilled hacker.”

Dick shakes his head, “All I did was write a few programs using WayneTech that could override most systems and used those to break in by uploading them. Even if I had access to tech better than some encrypted and empty computers, I don’t have the technology for it. Guess I’m the Ultimate Acrobat and not the Ultimate Hacker for a reason.”

“But if these are so useless,” Sanageyama picks up the coin and moves t around his fingers, examining it with his touch, “Then why would we even bother trying to hack into the machines?”

“Mr. Monochrome said there’s some big prize if you hit jackpot,” Gaige explains, “Something that would help us out of here. Maybe a hint 'bout his ID?”

“Then there may be a way after all,” Togami crosses his arms, “While the bear has a love for inflicting despair, he tends to keep his word on such manners.”

“But that’s only if Monokuma even has anything to do with Junko Enoshima this time,” Naegi points out and scratches his head, “Sure it doesn’t hurt to try but we’ll probably be out of coins if we play by his rules.”

Rose stands up, “It’s pretty late but maybe Dick and I could at least have a look at it tomorrow,” she looks over to Gaige, “And you’re the Ultimate Engineer, right? If the three of us put our mind to it, maybe we’ll figure something out?”

Dick thinks it over, and although he’s certain that his input won’t do much good, he shrugs, “Like Naegi said, won’t hurt to try.”

“I’m in,” Gaige smiles.

“Then I guess we’re done here… unless anyone else has anything to say?” Dick asks.

“I… suppose there is one matter worth discussing,” Akechi starts and Ryuji rolls his eyes.

“Oh boy, what is it now?”

Akechi points outside, “The storage room is unlocked. We can promise each other than no more weapons will be stolen but can we truly trust each other with that?”

“We’ll have to,” Babs stands up, “By now, we can’t do anything but trust each other.”

* * *

As soon as breakfast is over, Gaige, Dick and Rose go upstairs and into the casino. At least this morning, Pamela had made a brief appearance as had the rest of the group. It wasn’t much, but it was reassurance enough for Dick that nothing had gone horribly the night before. He’d been dealing with murders, monsters and metahumans since before he hit puberty but the anxiety of finding one of the guests dead at any given moment and having to go through yet another dreadful class trial was something Dick wanted to avoid at all costs.

And if avoiding it meant breaking one of the slot machines, then he was all over it.

Gaige peers at the panel on the side of the machine, “My arm's pretty strong but I don’t think even I could take this off without a wrench.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” Rose gives her a small grin before ripping the panel off with her bare hands. Dick is hardly surprised by her strength, but Gaige’s jaw drops at the sight, “oh right, I’ve got enhanced strength. I can’t exactly take on Superman with it but it’s useful in a fight… or for ripping off bits of a slot machine.”

“Right…” Gaige looks into the machinery and hums as she thinks and moves around different objects, “I mean the only experience I have with slot machines are the ones in Moxxi’s bar and those have bombs in them. I kinda worried this might have one too,” she carefully investigates the inside of the machine, "Yeah... pretty sure that's a bomb

“Then we just have to get the right person for that,” Rose smirks and drops the panel. Despite the carpet, there’s still a loud noise when it hits the ground, but none of the guests in the room seem particularly shaken, “I’ll see if I can find Tina. She loves this stuff, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s the problem,” Gaige steps away, “She’s not a bad person, and I doubt she’d kill anyone here but give that girl any kind of explosive and she will blow this place to hell, probably with us in it.”

“So… lets avoid telling her that,” Dick says, taking a look inside, “If one of you has something sharp like scissors or a knife, I might be able to diffuse any potential bombs.”

“There’s the storage room?” Rose suggests, “I know we’re not meant to go there but since everyone knows what we’re doing here they shouldn’t have too much of an issue with it, right?”

Dick winces a little when he thinks over all of the possible reactions they might get, but eventually he agrees with her, “I guess, just don’t be secretive about it. If anyone asks, tell them we needed something to fix the slot machine.”

Rose does a small salute, “Gotcha boss,” she smirks and leaves the other two guests alone in the casino.

“Wait, you’re like fourteen, how did you get into a bar?” Dick asks.

“…let’s just say I live in a pretty crappy neighbourhood and leave it at that.”

* * *

Outside of morning and night time announcements, the guests don’t hear from Monokuma for the next three days. While they still struggled to find any clues that could give away the identity of the person behind Monokuma or anything relating to their situation, they slowly began adapting to their life in the hotel.

Even after diffusing the bomb, the whole slot machine shut down and their operation turned out to be bust. There was certainly no way of modifying the slot machines physically, and if the system truly was rigged against them, no chance of winning either.

Pamela still refused to talk with anyone beyond a simple greeting, Togami, Barbara and Akechi all seemed to disappear as soon as breakfast was over only to reappear just before the night time announcement, and everyone else went about their business.

In the three days that went past, the weapons room had become less of a taboo as Kiryuuin, Rose, Dick, Artemis and Gamagoori had all borrowed weapons from there and trained from time to time in the dinning hall by moving all of the tables and chairs up to the window. They were all surprised when Monokuma didn’t raise the alarm, but then again with the real swords and other weapons that group was using, Dick was sure that Monokuma was hoping that someone would be seriously injured.

As the evening of the third day neared, Dick and Artemis continued their regular training regime in the dinning hall, with Artemis gaining the upper hand, “Getting slow there, Grayson,” she says, swinging her katana at him which he just about dodges at the last second by tilting back, “Don’t tell me the hotel is throwing you off your game?”

“Me? Never,” he grins and jumps, pushing himself off of the table by the window with one foot, and aiming at Artemis with the other. She blocks the kick by crossing her arms above her, but she stumbles. Dick uses the opportunity to spin kick her in the stomach and sends her flying across the room. She drops the katana and lands in a pile of chairs, “Told you.”

He walks over to her and extends his hand to help her up. She takes it and stands up, wiping the dust off herself, “This brings us to a tie, right? Wanna go another round?”

“Hey! You can’t just go moving the furniture however you like!” Monokuma’s shrill voice sounds, and the two heroes turn around to find the bear standing right behind them, “That must be against hotel regulations!”

“Its not, we checked,” Dick informs him, “Besides, didn’t you write them to begin with? Shouldn’t you know what they say?”

“Of course, I did! I just can’t believe I didn’t include something like this!”

Artemis walks past the bear and grabs the katana off the ground, “If you didn’t like us moving the table then why only come complain about it now? We’ve been doing it for the past three days and you didn’t notice?”

“Or were you actually not watching us this whole time?” Dick concludes. It made sense, after all, Monokuma tried to butt into as many conversations as he could, and if he were being honest, Dick was actually having somewhat of a good time training and bonding with some of the other guests, which only would’ve pissed the bear off, “I mean, the morning and night time announcement is always the same so I’m pretty sure that’s pre-recorded. So then tell us, why come bother us now?”

Monokuma growls, which only served to prove Dicks point, “If you must know, I’ve been busy cooking up a little surprise for you all. But if you want to know what it is, you’ll have to come to the lobby! See ya there!”

Artemis and Dick turn to each other as soon as the bear leaves, “This can’t be good,” Artemis says.

“Its another motive, it has to be.”

* * *

“So, you’re all finally here. Took you long enough,” Monokuma mutters when Pamela, the last person to enter the lobby, steps in, “I bet you’re just quivering in anticipation for the surprise I’ve got lined up for you,” he says, blushing and panting, “doesn’t waiting like this make it so much better?”

Rose rolls her eyes, “If you just made us all come over here so you can perv out over our 'despair' then I’m out of here.”

“Oh no you don’t!” Monokuma shouts, “Not unless you want everyone here to know your dirty little secret, you know, how you’re-,”

Rose cuts him off quickly, “Get to it then. What do you want from us?”

Monokuma pulls out the same tablet as last time and pretends to read what’s on it, “These past three days I got info on every single one of you! You all have something you wanna hide! Maybe even enough to kill over it! Ahahahahah!” Monokuma laughs, “Which is why I’m gonna tell everyone your secrets!”

“What?!” Tiny Tina shouts, “No way you got everything on all of us!”

Monokuma points over to Naegi, “Let’s start with that guy over there! Did you all know that he wet the bed until the 5th grade?!”

Everyone looks over to Naegi, “It’s embarrassing but I’m not gonna kill anyone over it!”

“That’s the worst you’ve got?” Akechi smirks, “That’s hardly something any of us will kill over.”

“No?” Monokuma smirks, “We’ll see about that! From now on, I’m gonna announce one of your secrets without giving out a name. I’ll give the name out whenever I feel like it, so it’s up to you to decide if you wanna act on it before I do that! Of course, I’ll give ya enough time to kill but you never know when I’ll get bored and decide to let slip what you’ve done!” Monokuma looks down at his tablet and reads from it, “This next person doesn’t want anyone to find out that they were once abused by their father! Woah, that’s some pretty heavy stuff! I wouldn’t want anyone to find out about it if I were you! But I’m not, so get to it!”

He flips back behind the reception desk and disappears.

Gaige glances over to Dick, “You seem to know what to do in these situations. Got a solution for this one?”

Pamela chuckles, “His solution will be to simply make everyone confess to their secrets. That will never happen.”

“So, then what?” Dick asks, “We wait around until someone snaps?”

“We deal with it,” Sanageyama offers, “Monokuma’s just waiting for one of us to snap. If none of us will confess to our secrets, we’ll have to wait until Monokuma runs out of ways to push our buttons.”

“Good luck with that,” Togami says sarcastically, “If you honestly expect that none of us will kill to hide our darkest secrets then you won’t last long in this game.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Sanageyama shouts at him.

“it means that we already have a killer amongst us. I’m certain someone here will eventually kill,” Togami explains, “Certain secrets are worth more to some than another’s life.”

**_*Ding dong, bing bong*_ **

“Attention all guests! It is now 10 PM, and as such, it is officially night time. As such, the guests must remain quiet when moving through the halls. Okay, sweet dreams everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the beg bugs bite!”

* * *

The next day, Dick wakes up to the morning announcement,

**_*Ding dong,bing bong*_ **

“Good morning everyone! Get ready to greet another beauuuuuutiful day!” Monokuma announces though the monitor, “oh and by the way, it was Ryuji Sakamoto who was once abused by his father! Now, since no one’s dead, it’s time for the next secret; this person is secretly plotting to kill their own mother! How horrible!”

Dick decides to make his way over to the dining hall as soon as possible. While no one had been killed, it didn’t mean that Monokuma’s promises had done no damage to the guests.

He takes the quickest shower possible and hastily leaves his room, almost bumping into his girlfriend on the way, “Babs! Long time no see,” he jokes, trying to keep the atmosphere light.

“Sorry I’ve been kind of… absent,” she stops and takes Dick’s arm so he’d stop with her, “I… Just, know that everything I’m doing and everything I’ll do is to get us out of here.”

“Babs… you didn’t do anything bad… right?” Dick furrows his eyebrows in worry.

Babs chuckles, “No, don’t worry. I’ve just been in the library a lot with Akechi and Togami. Akechi’s clever and Togami’s resourceful. I’m sure we’ll get out of here, hopefully sooner rather than later.”

“With you working on it?” He pulls her into a tight hug, “I know it won’t be long before we’re kicking Scarecrow’s or Joker’s or Blockbusters ass back at home again.”

She hugs him back, “Yeah… definitely,” she whispers and after a long silence, she pulls away from him, “Anyway, lets get going. Maybe we’re missing out on something in the dining hall.”

The two of them make their way to the dining hall, hand in hand, and as they expected given their conversation, they’re the last ones at the chaotic scene.

Gaige sits at the table, holding a knife which was currently stabbed into the table, with Artemis and Naegi reeling back in surprise. Akechi sits next to her, clearly unmoved, and Kiryuuin sits in her usually spot, calmly drinking her tea while Sanageyama has his sword drawn in front of him and Gamagoori looks ready to fight. Tiny Tina stands at the other end, trying to join in but Ryuji and Rose try to hold her back. The only ones acting somewhat normal were Togami, who was watching the scene unfold from furthest away and Pamela who was on her way out.

“Let me know when the hormonal teenagers are all acting reasonably again,” Pamela says to Barbara as an explanation and leaves the chaos behind.

Dick lets go of Babs’ hand and runs to the scene, “What’s going on?!”

“This is what happens when we tell each other our secrets,” Togami informs him, and nods in Kiryuuin’s direction.

“Once I leave here, I am going to kill my own mother,” Kiryuuin admits, “Gaige, the most wanted girl in her world, believes that I’m heartless for it.”

“I’m only wanted for my tech and for killing some crazy people who tried to kill me first!” Gaige argues, still holding onto the knife, “what possible reason could you have for killing your parent?!”

Akechi slowly moves his hand over to hers, “Gaige, not all of us lived under the same circumstances as you. Perhaps Kiryuuin is justified in wanting to hurt her own family. I can imagine that they must’ve done something quite horrible.”

“I am no going to justify my resolve to you,” Kiryuuin replies and sets down her teacup, “but if you must know then yes, my mother is a cruel woman who simply acts for a higher power than herself,” she stands up and heads for the door, “I wanted you all to know before Monokuma revealed it. I had hoped this would result in less arguing, but apparently not.”

“Lady Satsuki-!” Gamagoori shouts after her but he stops when she lifts up her hand, shutting him up.

“I will be in my room until the next secret is out. Hopefully it will make you all realise that I’m not going to kill anyone over this.”

“Well if you’re just gonna come out and say it, then what’s the point of me even sayin’ anything?!” Monokuma appears next to Babs.

“What do you want now?” Kiryuuin grits her teeth.

“You know what I want missy, but apparently you ain’t ready to give it up!” Monokuma replies, “So here’s another one for ya; Kiryuuin does want to kill her mother for her greed, but she’s not the only one with family issues! One of you is the illegitimate child of a high-ranking politician! And if ya don’t want anyone to find that out, you know what you gotta do! Upupupupupu!” He jumps behind the door and disappears again.

“…anyone gonna fess up to that?” Ryuji asks, resulting in Tiny Tina laughing.

“Fess up?! You didn’t even tell us that last one was you! Oooooh, you’re plotting to get us all killed anyway, aren’t ya?!”

Ryuji quickly lets go of her now that he was certain she wasn’t going to fight anyone other than maybe him, “The hell?! No! I’m not gonna kill anyone!”

“Yeah? Monika said the same didn’t she? Look where that got her!” Tina throws back, and it’s too much for Ryuji. He storms out of the room as well and Artemis runs after him.

“So much for trusting each other,” Akechi mutters and helps Gaige get the knife out of the table.

* * *

**_*Ding dong, bing bong*_ **

“Attention all guests! It is now 10 PM, and as such, it is officially night time. As such, the guests must remain quiet when moving through the halls,” the announcement cuts off for a couple of second and the screen goes to black. As quickly as it goes, it’s back on again, “Hmmm… despite this morning altercations, no one is dead yet, and that’s really pissing me off! But I’m a bear who stays true to his word so I’ll let ya all in on a little something. The illegitimate child of one Masayoshi Shido is none other than everyone’s least favourite detective, Goro Akechi! Our next person killed one of their classmates when they were still in school! How tragic! I couldn’t even begin to imagine how despair-inducing that must have been! Okay, sweet dreams everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the beg bugs bite!”

Akechi rolls up his sleeves as he and Barbara work in the library, his jacket hanging off of his chair and his tie loosened since that afternoon. He barely takes notice of the announcement come on until Babs nudges him, “is it true?”

“Does it matter?” Akechi asks, flipping through another book, “it isn’t information that will help us get out of our situation, is it?”

“No,” Barbara agrees and puts the book she was reading away, “but I thought you wanted everyone to trust each other. Why stay quiet about it if you didn’t want to hide it?”

He sighs and closes the book he was reading, putting it away he replies, “When Kiryuuin gave away her secret, Monokuma immediately moved onto one of my secrets. If I were to then give that away, Monokuma would have given out another secret, one someone may not like.”

“You’re trying to delay any possible murders?” Babs asks, “You really think that someone’s gonna do it?”

“I know that you are waiting for a chance for everyone to be distracted,” Akechi reveals to Babs, but she doesn’t react, “I’ve yet to figure out why and what exactly it is you’re planning but yes, if I can delay a murder I can delay you possibly doing something dangerous, something that may just get you killed too.”

“You care that much about me?” Babs smirks, “You barely know me.”

Akechi shakes his head, “While it may sound heartless, that isn’t my reason. You, Grayson, Togami and Naegi are possibly the best assets to have here. Grayson knows his way around a case, Togami seems to be a wealth of knowledge whenever he feels like being co-operative, and Naegi survived two out of four killing games.”

“And I’m helping you in figuring out the truth behind the killing hotel life. So you only don’t want people to die so that you can survive,” Babs concludes and opens up another book.

“I apologise that my method’s may not be as grandiose as you’d hoped, although we both know that it is the answer that you expected.”

* * *

**_*Ding dong,bing bong*_ **

“Good morning everyone! Get ready to great another beauuuuuutiful day!” Monokuma announces though the monitor, “Come on guys! It’s like you’re not taking this seriously! Well then, I guess I might as well tell you, it was Gaige who killed her own classmate! And with a death-robot with claws too! If I wasn't already the most awesome bear around, I might've been healous! This next, and hopefully last, person has killed someone on more than one occasion!”

Everyone at the breakfast table looks over to Gaige expectantly, “It was an accident! The robot was just meant to help against bullying but I miscalculated and it blew up Marcie Holloway… I had good intentions I swear!” Gaige tries to argue, “After that, my dad managed to help smuggle me onto the borderlands, I mean you’re not gonna go looking for anyone there unless you’re desperate to die so...” she trails off.

“I suppose it’s understandable why you freaked out so much about Kiryuuin wanting to kill her own parent,” Artemis nods and looks over to Babs, “you gonna be in the library today?”

“I might in the evening,” Dick replies instead when Babs shakes her head, “Why’d you ask?”

“I was just thinking of doing some reading, that’s all,” she drinks the water in the glass in front of her, “Safety in numbers I guess. I’ll see you there.”

She stands up, takes her plate and empty glass and leaves for the kitchen.

“You guys wanna go for a swim later?” Naegi suggests, “I mean, waiting around till Monokuma reveals another secret is only going to make us anxious.”

“I might join you,” Kiryuuin offers.

“Count me in!” Ryuji grins.

Dick shrugs, “Why not? Might help blow off some steam. Babs, you in?”

Babs puts down her coffee mug, “Maybe in a bit,” she glances over to the cameras the back to the table, “We may have found something. We’ll let you all know this evening if it’s actually something.”

* * *

Dick gets out of the pool as soon as he’s done with his last lap and glances at the clock. It was already 17:45, nearing their meeting time, “Ah crap, I said I’d meet Artemis at the library now.”

“I’m sure she’ll understand you being a few minutes late,” Ryuji says and swims over to the edge of the pool, “If she comes by and asks we’ll let her know you were on your way.”

Dick smiles and waves at Kiryuuin, Naegi, Tina, and Sanageyama who were all on the other side of the pool. He grabs a towel from one of the lockers and dries himself off. Before going to the library, he swings by his room and puts on his clothes. He grabs his towel, deciding to dry his hair on the way and goes back in the same direction as he came from, this time walking into the library.

“Hey Artemis, sorry for being late, I was just doing some laps and-,” he’s only able to see the floor underneath him as he dries his hair, but he stops moving his hands when he sees the blood. Slowly, he looks up and drops his towel as soon as he sees her.

One of his closest friends, Artemis Crock, was lying on the ground by one of the bookcases with her head caved in.

**_*Ding dong, ding dong*_ **

“A body has been discovered! After some time has passed, which you can use however you wish, a class trial will begin!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the next story arc of the Killing Hotel Life! Due to my own personal time constraints, I don't know how often I'll be able to update this, but I promise to finish this story!


	8. A Life of Crime- Deadly Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guests investigate the murder of the second victim of the killing hotel life.

Dick stands in the same place as he had been since finding Artemis’ body, paralysed. The body discovery announcement played, which could only mean one thing. Artemis was truly dead, and now, they had to go through another class trial, and sentence one of their friends, or possibly themselves, to death.

The first one to run in is Ryuji, still dripping wet from the pool, followed by Akechi, Sanageyama, Kiryuuin, Naegi, Togami, Pamela and Tina, “We heard the announcement!” Ryuji says first and looks to the body, “Holy shit!”

“Oh mama, that must’a hurt,” Tina comments.

Kiryuuin immediately turns back to the door, “I will go find and alert the others.”

She leaves, and it’s not long before Rose, Gaige, Gamagoori, Pamela and lastly Togami join them, “We couldn’t find Barbara,” Togami informs them, “Though I suppose that with the announcement and the size of this place, it won’t be long before she joins us.”

“Dick?” Naegi asks, “Are you…?”

He doesn’t answer at first, not until Naegi pats him on the arm. He clears his throat and shakes his head, “I… we need to find her killer. After that, we’re taking the fight to Monokuma.”

Akechi steps forward, notebook already in hand, “I would not fight Monokuma now if I were you. Dying now will not bring justice for Artemis, Takamaki, or even Monika. Right now, pull yourself together. You can mourn for her later.”

“Dude!” Ryuji exclaims, “Don’t you think you’re being a little harsh?”

Togami steps forward as well, “no, he isn’t. If we want to stay alive, we have to discover who killed her, and in order for us to do that, we must have someone mentally stable to head the investigation. Which is why I think Akechi should be removed from here this instance.”

Akechi raises an eyebrow, “I assure you, I had nothing to do with this case. Since when did you stop trusting me?”

“Since your secret was revealed and you brushed it off as if it were nothing. I overheard your conversation with Gordon last night, who just so happens to be missing as well. After the things you hid from us in the first investigation, how do you expect us to trust you?” Togami smirks and points to the others, “I can’t be the only one who thinks that.”

“Kind of ironic for you to say that,” Dick hears Naegi mutter, though if Togami hears it, he remains ignorant of the comment.

Akechi glances over to the others, who all look away, then finally to Dick, “Do you agree?”

Dick winces at the question, “I’m… not sure. But I think if you want everyone’s trust back, you shouldn’t be part of the investigation this time.”

Akechi sighs, then hands his notebook to Dick, “Very well. Though it means that you will be my guide in the class trial. Please take note of anything you find peculiar, however trivial it may be. You never know what may prove to be a critical piece of evidence.”

He leaves the room, but even then, everyone remains on edge. Rose follows him to the door, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t do anything either. I don’t… I don’t think I can look at Artemis’ body any longer to be honest.”

Dick opens up the notebook and finds a clean page. Before he notes down anything, Monokuma jumps out from behind a bookshelf, “You guys aren’t forgetting something, are you?” he pulls out a tablet and hands it over to Naegi, “It’s everyone’s favourite, the Monokuma file! I’m sure you’re all familiar with it, I mean the last time you saw this wasn’t even a week ago! Have fun investigating!” The bear jumps back behind the bookshelves, and Naegi begins reading the file,

“The body is that of Artemis Lian Crock. It was found in the library and the time of death is around 5:15 PM. The body’s skull was caved in by a blunt object and the body has a stab wound. Other recent wounds include two broken ribs among multiple smaller cuts and bruises across the entire body,” Naegi looks up, “It doesn’t indicate any particular cause of death.”

As promised, Dick notes down all of the details of the second Monokuma file into Akechi’s red notebook, “It might be because it’s a key to figuring out this mystery. Any of you guys seen anything weird?”

Togami nods, “On my way here, I noticed multiple items were missing from the storage room. Would anyone have an explanation for that?”

“I do,” Dick quickly jumps in, “A few of us got bored and started training with the weapons. We keep them in our rooms but we’ve got a log of all of the weapons. I think Artemis had that list though. I can’t remember what was on it exactly.”

“Do you think anyone will?” Gaige asks, “I mean, we can’t get into Artemis’ room now, I’m pretty sure she locks it every time she goes out… and either way I’d feel super weird if we invaded her privacy like that now.”

Kiryuuin nods, “I agree… however, I believe Rose mentioned how she had an eidetic memory. She has definitely seen the list in its most recent form, perhaps she could tell us what was on it. I will go ask her,” she swiftly leaves the room in search of the two others.

Just as last time, Gamagoori and Tiny Tina station themselves near the body to stand guard. Pamela leaves once more to search on her own, as do Gaige and Naegi. The only one who stays with him is Togami, Ryuji and Sanageyama, “So then, care to explain where the three of you were at 17:15?” Togami interrogates them.

“Swimming like we said we would,” Sanageyama crosses his arms, “Same as Lady Satsuki and Tiny Tina. We’ve all got alibi’s, what about you?”

“I was in my room, reading,” Togami looks over to the notebook in Dick’s hand, “Are you writing any of this down?”

Dick shakes his head, “If it comes up in the trial, Naegi will just back you up. Hey!” He shouts when Togami snatches the notebook away from him and starts scribbling down names, “Are those… suspects? Seriously? And you wrote yourself as a suspect?”

“You’re a police officer, you tell me. And of course, I wrote myself down as a suspect, after all I have no alibi,” Togami hands it back over to Dick, “Well then, what can you tell me about this crime scene?”

Dick looks around carefully, picking up every little hint he could. There was blood dripping from the bookshelves under which Artemis’ limp body lay and a couple of books were piled on top of her. The chairs and tables in the room were overturned, and a broken, however spotless desk lamp lay near the body. There was no blood on the ground around the body, “Given the state of this library, I’d say a fight broke out, one that Artemis lost.”

“Wouldn’t we have heard it?” Sanageyama points behind him with his thumb, “The pool’s just next door, right?”

At this point, Dick couldn’t say that he was surprised by Monokuma’s sudden appearance on top of the bookshelves, “Nope!” The bear says, getting their attention, “This entire room is soundproofed! As long as the doors are closed, no one can hear ya, and no one inside can hear anything going on outside either! I wouldn’t want you guys to be distracted when studying in here! I cherish all kinds of education!”

Sanageyama pulls a random book out of the shelf, “Aren’t all of the books in here related to murder? Let me guess, this one’s probably a murder mystery one, isn’t it?”

“You got that right!” Monokuma exclaims, “The Sherlock Holmes collection! You can definitely learn a thing or two from that one! But now ain’t the time for studying, after all, you can only investigate while I’m not bored! Who knows when I’ll decide to stop all of this?” Monokuma jumps back behind the shelf.

As he’s lowering his head, Dick spots something shining from the bookshelf where Sanageyama found picked up the book, “what’s that?”

Sanageyama turns around and pulls the object that lay behind the books. He throws it over to Togami, who inspects it carefully, “It’s a candle stick holder. I saw it on the table here before but it was covered in dust,” Togami smirks, “however, a spotless candlestick holder hiding behind a Sherlock Holmes collection in a library seems quite cliché, with a hint of irony.”

“Come on, man,” Sanageyama shakes his head, “One of us just died and you think it’s amusing?”

“Hardly, but there’s nothing we can do for Crock anymore beyond this,” Togami glances over to Dick, “You are writing this down, yes?”

Dick shakes his head, looking behind Togami, “I will in a second, just…” He trails off and walks over to the object he was looking at. On top of one of the overturned chairs was a black piece of plastic, and with the ridges on one end, Dick could tell it was broken. He picks it up and looks around, however he can’t place where it was broken off from, “Anyone seen this before?”

Togami turns around and raises an eyebrow, “Yes…”

_Akechi crouches down and picks up some sort of visor. He stands back up and smirks, “I assume you’re here so that no one will be able to access these weapons. Although I can already tell you that your attempts are futile,” he throws the visor in her direction, and she catches it immediately._

_She doesn’t even look at it, instead passing it back to Artemis who examines the object more closely, “Is that feeble attempt at a threat supposed to scare me? I assure you, it will take more than empty words to weaken my resolve.”_

_Akechi shakes his threat, “read into it however you wish, but I was not threatening you,” he points to the visor, “That belongs to a notorious criminal I’ve come to refer to as the Black Mask. With his abilities, he has killed multiple high-ranking individuals across Shibuya, but he has yet to leave any trace of evidence behind. The police has no idea that such an individual exists.”_

_Togami takes the piece from Artemis and looks it over himself, “If the police don’t know about his existence then how do you know he does exist? Furthermore, the only way you could know that this belongs to him would be if you had seen him before.”_

_Akechi nods, “He tried to kill me once, but I managed to escape.”_

Togami grabs the piece from Dick and heads for the door, “It’s a piece of the Black Mask’s visor.”

“Where are you going?!” Sanageyama asks as Togami storms past him.

“If this is only part of the visor, then the rest must be with the killer,” Togami explains as he opens the door. Sanageyama and Dick run out after him and follow him into the storage room, “the other option is that they of course discarded it.”

As Togami picks up the remaining visor, Dick searches the room for something else. He notes down a couple of other things, such as the lack of blood near Artemis’ body or the towel he had dropped on the floor when he first arrived.

Both Dick and Togami are distracted when Sanageyama speaks up, “All the books in the library are in mint condition, right?”

“Supposedly,” Togami confirms and looks away from the visor. He sees Sanageyama holding the Sherlock Holmes Collection that to this point he hadn’t put back open, showing how clearly some of the pages were ripped out, “unless Monokuma has a particular hate for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I suppose that would be the killers doing.”

“Why would you rip some pages out?” Sanageyama asks, closing the book, “Wait, uh, I should probably go put this back.”

Dick nods, “You do that, we’ll be back soon,” once Sanageyama leaves and closes the door behind him, Dick speaks up once more, “Don’t you think something’s missing from here?”

“Hm?” Togami looks down at the visor once more, “I suppose we haven’t found the remaining parts of this costume. Therefore, we can only assume that the one behind this is whoever is the Black Mask.”

“Not necessarily,” Dick thinks out loud, “It could be someone pretending to be the Black Mask. I mean, we don’t actually know who it is. Although… we could try something. We already know whose secrets have been revealed, and I mean ‘killed people on occasion’ sounds pretty serial killer-y to me. If Black Mask was trying to hide that secret, now would’ve been the critical time to do it.”

Togami sets down the visor and the broken piece, no longer requiring it for his own investigation, “So we cross reference the list of suspects with those who haven’t had their secrets revealed and see who remains?”

With that, Dick pulls out the notebook once more and goes through the list of suspects, “That still leaves us with you, Babs, Pamela, Rose, and Gamagoori. Although I’m gonna cross out Pamela since her killing people isn’t exactly a secret between any of us so it can’t be her.”

“You’re not crossing out your girlfriend?” Togami smirks, “It’s good to know where your loyalties lie.”

Dick shakes his head, “I seriously don’t think she’s the Black Mask but with no hard proof and with her missing, it’ll look suspicious for both of us if I don’t consider her as a potential suspect.”

Togami nods, “I suppose that makes sense. In any case, I’ll leave you to find the costume. I have somewhere else to be.”

“What could possibly be more important than finding the costume now?” Dick asks, putting the notebook in his back pocket.

“The whereabouts of the sharp object,” Togami replies ominously, and leaves the storage room, leaving Dick alone, if only for a brief moment. Sanageyama comes into the room, and to his surprise, Barbara follows him in.

“Where have you been?” Dick asks immediately.

“Not important right now,” Babs shakes her head, “I… saw Artemis. Actually, the library is where Sanageyama found me-,”

“Babs,” Dick cuts her off, “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but can I see your room?”

“What?” Babs asks, clearly offended by the insinuation, “You think _I_ killed Artemis?! She was like a sister to me!”

Dick shows her the notebook and the list of suspects, “You’re still one of the few people on here without an alibi and without evidence to prove that you’re not the Black Mask. I know you’re not him, but my good character evidence means nothing to anyone here. If Sanageyama and I check your room, then at least we’ll know you aren’t hiding any evidence for sure.”

Babs crosses her arms and pauses to think it over. Eventually, she takes out her e-handbook and holds it out, “Alright, I guess I see where you’re coming from.”

“Uh… you’re gonna need to come with us,” Dick says, pushing the handbook back towards her, “if I take that, you’ll be ‘lending’ me your handbook. I’m kinda surprised you forgot that.”

Babs takes her handbook back and turns around, “The rule, right. Well, follow me then.”

She leaves the storage room first and Dick and Sanageyama follow her to the hotel bedrooms. Dick barely picks up on her reluctance to open the door, but when she does, he immediately understands why.

The Black Mask blue and black costume lay on the ground, crumpled up and with blood smeared all over it. Right next to the costume lay a crumpled up piece of paper. Dick picks up the piece of paper and reads it, “Artemis is going to be in the library around 6. Use that time wisely.”

Recognising the handwriting, he flips through the handbook. It matches perfectly to the one inside and everything clicks, “Did… did you help Akechi kill Artemis?”

“No!” Babs shakes her head, “Of course I didn’t help him! And even if I did, wouldn’t that mean that I’d be killed too? Why would I help Akechi kill someone? Especially Artemis?!”

“Then explain the note, and why you’ve been hanging around so much?!” Dick shouts, throwing the note down, “Dammit Babs, I know you better than this. You’re not a killer so what’s so important that you can’t tell me about this?!”

“I can’t tell you!” Babs shouts back, “At least… not yet.”

Dick groans loudly, clenching his fist, “Fine, then I’ll just have to ask Akechi about where he was at 5:15,” he storms out of the room and Sanageyama quickly follows him, but Babs stays behind.

“I know it looked bad,” Sanageyama tries as he catches up to him, “but maybe there’s a good explanation for it?”

Instead of replying, Dicks pounds his fist on Akechi’s door, who’s quick to answer.

“Finished your investigation already?”

Dick gets straight to the point, “5:15, where were you?”

“I was in the computer room, with Gordon. I would suggest you confirm it with her, but I gather from your anger you already have,” Akechi replies.

“Then explain why you told her about Artemis being in the library,” Dick continues to press him for information, “And why we found ripped pages from a book in her room.”

“Not exactly the kind of thing the Ultimate Librarian would do,” Sanageyama adds.

Akechi leans against his doorframe, “I overheard-,”

“Eavesdropped,” Dick assumes, and Akechi rolls his eyes.

“Fine, eavesdropped on something the archer had said this morning. I don’t know who she was talking to, but she mentioned going to the library, and then because I didn’t want anyone to eavesdrop on me, I wrote the note and carefully slid it under Gordon’s door when no else was looking.”

“Assuming you’re telling the truth,” Dick says, obviously not believing Akechi, “you gave me this notebook knowing I’d find it had missing pages, didn’t you? Did you seriously think we wouldn’t suspect you?”

“Actually yes,” Akechi replies nonchalantly, “I didn’t expect Artemis in particular to be murdered today. Anything else?”

Dick looks behind him, over to Rose who was sitting at the desk in his room, “Did he leave at all?”

Rose shakes her head, “not once. I’ve had my eye on him this whole time.”

“Good to know,” he’s about to leave when he’s reminded of a question he had for Rose, “Oh, I have something to ask you as well. You’ve got an eidetic memory, right? So do you happen to remember the weapons we took from the storage rooms?”

Rose nods, “Yeah, but it was only katanas, escrima sticks and Artemis’ crossbow. I wasn’t really there for long but unless something was hidden then I don’t remember seeing any of those weapons in there.”

***Ding dong, bing bong***

The screens switch on, and Sanageyama, Rose, Akechi and Dick look to the one in Akechi’s room. Monokuma appears to make his announcement, “Alright, I’m getting pretty bored now, so head on over to the same red door as last time!”

* * *

When Dick reaches the door, Togami already has his hand out, “Where’s your notebook?”

“It’s Akechi’s,” Dick points out, “Why do you want to know?”

“I have two more pieces of evidence you may want to add,” Togami pulls out a fresh piece of paper and hands it over to Dick, “I found the knife most likely used underneath one of the bookcases, but it was covered in blood. While I was searching, Monokuma gave me this, a list of everyone’s secrets. However, it doesn’t say what secret belongs to who. It’s something you’ll have to work out during the trial,” he explains, and the doors open when everyone gets there, “I see you found Gordon.”

“Mhm,” Dick hums as a reply, and looks up and down the list. Next to some of the secrets, Togami had clearly written in the initials of those secrets which had already been revealed.

 

- _Plotting to kill their mother_ \- SK

- _Lied about their Ultimate ability_

- _Killed a classmate_ \- G

- _Killed on more than one occasion_

- _Is the Black Mask_

\- _Real Ultimate talent is Ultimate Hacker_

- _Abused by their father_ \- RS

- _Masochist_

- _Has selective amnesia_

- _Wet the bed until the 5 th grade_\- MN

- _Knew about their sibling being poisoned and said nothing_

- _Illegitimate child of a high-ranking politician_ \- AG

- _Blames themselves for the death of their teammates_

 

“And this is everyone’s?”

Togami fixes his glasses, “All the secrets that Monokuma said he was going to use. You noticed it, yes?”

“There’s 13 secrets, but 14 of us. The numbers are off.”

Togami confirms his suspicion, “Yes, and if someone doesn’t have a secret, what’s to stop someone else from having two?”

Dick looks to the elevator doors which were slowly opening up. A few members of the group were already discussing their findings, but Togami leans closer to Dick so that no one else hears him, “Only tell the others the most obvious parts of the case… we may be in luck if someone reveals something they shouldn’t know.”

* * *

**Monokuma File #2**

The body is that of Artemis Lian Crock. It was found in the library and the time of death is around 5:15 PM. The body’s skull was caved in by a blunt object and the body has a stab wound. Other recent wounds include two broken ribs among multiple smaller cuts and bruises across the entire body

**List of Missing Weapons**

Over the past week, half of the guests had taken weapons from the storage room and kept them in their own rooms.

UPDATE: None of the weapons taken matched those of the stab wounds.

**Rose Eidetic Memory**

Rose has an eidetic memory, and so she can recall anything she has seen.

**Sanageyama’s Account**

Sanageyama explained how he, Dick, Kiryuuin, Tiny Tina, Ryuji and Naegi were all swimming when the murder took place and none of them heard anything.

**Suspects**

The individuals without a strong alibi thus far are Togami, Akechi, Barbara, Pamela, Rose, Gaige and Gamagoori.

**State of the Library**

There was blood dripping from the bookshelves under which Artemis’ limp body lay and a couple of books were pilled, on top of her. The chairs and tables in the room were overturned, and a broken, however spotless desk lamp lay near the body.

UPDATE: there was no blood found anywhere else in the library.

**Soundproofed Room**

According to Monokuma, the library is soundproof to the point that no sound can be heard inside or outside the room as long as the doors are closed.

**Candlestick Stand**

After pulling the Sherlock Holmes Collection from the bookcase, Sanageyama discovered a spotless candlestick. Togami had claimed that it was covered in dust the last time he saw it.

**Black Mask Visor Piece**

Dick found a dark piece of plastic on top of one of the chairs in the library. Togami recognised it as part of Black Masks visor.

**Black Mask Visor**

Togami found the rest of the Black Mask visor in the weapons room.

**Lack of Blood**

There was no blood found around Artemis’ body.

**The Sherlock Holmes Collection**

Pages were missing from the book

**Black Mask costume**

The costume was missing from the storage room. Sanageyama and Dick later found it in Barbara’s room with blood smeared all over it.

**Letter to Barbara**

Dick found a piece of paper in Barbara’s room, which was a letter addressed to her from Akechi. It read “Artemis is going to be in the library around 6. Use that time wisely.” The page was most likely taken out from Akechi’s notebook.

**Akechi’s Account**

He overheard Artemis asking someone to meet her in the library to discuss the latest secret that morning on the way to his room. He heard that Artemis was going to be in the library at 18:00. He admitted to wanting to show up 10 minutes earlier to eavesdrop on the conversation.

**Knife**

Togami found a kitchen knife covered in blood underneath a bookcase in the library.

**List of Secrets**

Monokuma gave Dick a list of secrets that he was going to reveal. It doesn’t say what secret belongs to who, and at least one person doesn’t seem to have a secret.

- _Plotting to kill their mother_ \- SK

- _Killed a classmate_ \- G

- _Lied about their Ultimate ability_

- _Is the Black Mask_

- _Is the Ultimate Hacker_

- _Abused by their father_ \- RS

- _Masochist_

- _Has selective amnesia_

- _Wet the bed until the 5 th grade_\- MN

- _Knew about their sibling being poisoned and said nothing_

- _Illegitimate child of a high-ranking politician_ \- GA

- _Blames themselves for the death of their teammates_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to my wonderful boyfriend who became my beta reader for this fic :D


	9. A Life of Crime- Class Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the clues have been collected, the stage has been set, let the second class trial begin.

**CLASS TRIAL IN SESSION**

**ALL RISE**

“Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! So, your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit’ then only they will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one… Then I’ll punish everyone besides the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will be able to check out of the hotel!” Monokuma repeats from his seat at the back of the courtroom.

This time around, the wallpaper had changed to one resembling a forest. Just like last time, Takamaki’s black and white portrait stood in her place, her face crossed out with red paint. Identical portraits of Monika and Artemis stood in their respective places, however the bloody x over Monika’s face was different than the others. On closer inspection, Dick noticed that instead of a hastily painted one, the x almost appeared to be in cursive.

When no one starts things off, Monokuma speaks up, “Let’s first start with discussing the cause of death. After all, that was the missing part of the Monokuma File!”

Ryuji looks up, “So that was on purpose? I thought you just got lazy,” He mutters.

Monokuma gasps, “How dare you insinuate that I, Monokuma Somethingorother would be so lazy as to not write that in!”

“I have a question,” Gaige asks, “Why hide the cause of death? Would that give away who did it?” “Nope!” Monokuma laughs, “I thought this would be waaaaaay more exciting!”

Babs shakes her head, done with Monokuma already at the start of the trial, “in any case, I think starting off with what killed her might bring to light the mysteries involving the rest of this case, so let’s start with that.”

“Well we found the room completely trashed, right?” Tiny Tina asks, “And her brains were like, everywhere!”

Akechi nods, “That’s… correct. However, is it wise to assume that her head injury resulted in her death?”

“Huh? Of course it is!” Gamagoori replies, “Who would survive something like that?”

Rose pulls out her e-handbook, “The Monokuma File did mention a few stab wounds.”

“Therefore, we cannot rule out that this may have been involved with the murder,” Akechi states, “Just prior to the trial I heard Togami inform Grayson that the knife he found in the library was covered in blood. The knife must have been used in the crime in some way or another.”

“So then, the knife must’ve been used to kill her!” Sanageyama concludes.

“No, I don’t think it’s the murder weapon,” Dick replies, and everyone turns their attention to him, “We found the knife but something about it was different from the rest of the crime scene.”

“It’s a knife found near a dead body,” Gaige puts her hands on her hips while talking, “What’s so wrong about that?”

“It was covered in blood,” Dick points out, “Besides the blood around Artemis, we didn’t find any in the library.”

Pamela smirks, “Your argument doesn’t make any sense. When we found Takamaki’s body, there was no blood anywhere except near her body. Why should this case be any different? And didn’t Togami find the knife under the bookshelf? That isn’t particularly odd, the killer was probably trying to hide it.”

As always, the rest of the guests turn their attention to Grayson, awaiting his rebuttal. Togami clears his throat, “Well? How would you explain that?”

Babs quickly answers before him, “Even if that knife was used, I don’t think it was used to administer the killing blow.”

Monokuma jumps up in his seat, “hold up! Do I hear right? You can’t decide on something this early? Hmmm, in that case, I guess I’ll just have to split you all up!”

“Split us up?” Naegi asks, and the ground beneath them begins to tremble.

Each of their stands go onto one side of the room, and instead of standing in a circle, the group had now been split in two, facing each other.

“If you can’t decide on something this simple in a regular non-stop debate, you’ll have to scrum against each other until one of the sides is convinced of the other! So… start debating!”

* * *

**SPLIT OPINION**

Was Artemis Killed by a Knife or a Blunt Object? 

Dick looks to who was on his side briefly and finds Babs, Togami, Akechi, Gamagoori, Kiryuuin and Naegi on his side, while the rest stood on the other. The portraits of the deceased were split evenly between the groups.

A siren goes off, and the debate begins with Pamela.

“Togami found the knife in the library, that must be the murder weapon.”

Dick quickly looks to Togami, expecting him to answer, “Togami?”

Togami shakes his head, “Simply because I found the **knife** there does not make that the murder weapon. There were many other objects found there as well.”

Rose speaks up next, “But the Monokuma File mentions stab wounds. There’s no way those are irrelevant.”

“Gamagoori?" Dick asks, expecting him to answer this.

“The **Monokuma File** mentions more than just her stab wounds! It also mentions her head injury!”

Tiny Tina jumps up, “If that were true, then why did we find the knife at all? The killer obviously tried to conceal it!”

“Naegi?”

Naegi hums and nods, picking up from there, “No, they didn’t **conceal** it, they probably didn’t even know it had fallen behind somewhere.”

“So, what? The murder weapon was also out in the open? That’s seems unlikely,” Sanageyama points out.

“Kiryuuin?”

She nods, “You are exactly right! Among other things, the killer had left the true murder weapon out in the **open**. We were not meant to discover the knife!”

“But we did find it near the dead body!” Gaige argues.

“Babs?” Dick looks directly to his left.

“No, we found it away from the **body** , but yes, it was still in the library.”

Akechi shakes his head, “Then why was it moved from the kitchen at all? What other purpose would it have than to kill?”

“Ryuji?”

Ryuji points towards Akechi, almost accusingly, “The killer probably used it to fight her. Maybe they were gonna **kill** her with it but it doesn’t mean that they did!”

Akechi argues once again, though to Dick’s surprise given how they were losing the argument, he seemed to be smiling, “Then why was there blood on it?”

Dick is the last to argue in the debate scrum, “I’ll answer that; Artemis did get into a fight, and she did get stabbed which is why there’s **blood** on it. But none of her wounds were ones that would lead to her death!”

**BREAK**

* * *

The stands return to their regular circle when no one argues against Dick anymore. However, another point is brought up by Ryuji,

“Then… I think we can agree that the killer tried to clean up after themselves, right? I mean, Pamela mentioned the lack of blood so… then why did we find the knife at all? They coulda just washed it up in the kitchen, none of us went in there recently anyway and it’s super easy to hide.”

Dick sighs, “There… there’s one reason I can think of. The killer used an accomplice who cleaned the room. Someone who didn’t know about the knife.”

Kiryuuin lifts an eyebrow, “An accomplice? As discussed in the last trial, there is no reward for helping someone commit murder in this game. If you’re making this statement, I assume you’re certain that someone here was in fact an accomplice.”

“I… do,” Dick points to his right, “It’s Barbara. She’s the only one who could’ve cleaned up after the real killer.”

“Gasp!” Tiny Tina says aloud, “Accusing your own girlfriend, pretty baller move! But how’d you know it’s her? She wasn’t even there when we found Arty’s body.”

“Sanageyama and I went to her room and found Black Masks costume on the floor. It was covered in blood. She didn’t give much of an explanation either,” Dick explains, and surprisingly, it’s Naegi that objects.

“That still doesn’t make sense,” Naegi argues, “I mean, why cover for someone else? What’s the point? Couldn’t she have just done this to make us think that she’s just an accomplice instead of the actual killer?”

Dick shakes his head, “She definitely didn’t kill Artemis.”

“Because she’s her friend?” Rose raises an eyebrow, “I don’t think that’s a good enough defence in this place. Besides, it could’ve just been an accident.”

“Maybe so,” Dick admits, “Given the state of the library I don’t doubt that it might’ve happened but… I think there’s something more important we need to discuss, other than the cause of death, weapon or the possibility of accomplices. Togami?”

Togami reaches into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulls out a piece of paper, “You’re talking about the motive for this case, right? Monokuma gave me a list of everyone’s secrets.”

“Hey!” Sanageyama shouts, “That’s totally a breach of our privacy!”

“Bwuahahahahah!” Monokuma bursts out laughing, “You lost your privacy the second you got here! Besides, it’s only fair everyone understands the motive behind this murder!”

“Hold on,” Ryuji says, “Didn’t you just say that Black Masks costume was used? Then… is he the killer?”

Togami nods, “We can infer as much, yes,” he says, “adding onto that, if these secrets are all real, then someone here is indeed the Black Mask.”

“Who is it then?” Gamagoori asks, “It can’t be anyone who’s already had their secret revealed.”

“No, that’s wrong,” Dick shakes his head, “Or at least, that might not necessarily be the case. There’s only thirteen secrets on that list, so we know that at least someone here isn’t on the list. If someone doesn’t have a secret, then someone else might even have two.”

“So, we spill everything,” Sanageyama concludes, “Then we’ll know who the Black Mask is!”

“No,” Kiryuuin shakes her head, “there is no way to tell if the real Black Mask would lie.”

“We need not reveal everyone’s secrets, because I already know who the Black Mask is,” Togami smirks, “You should too, Grayson.”

Dick raises an eyebrow. Why was Togami making him reveal everything? He lifts his hand up slowly and points across the room, “He's the only one. The identity of the real Black Mask is Goro Akechi.”

Everyone looks over to the detective, who bursts out laughing, “Really? The one chasing the serial killer is the killer himself?” Akechi shakes his head, “Please tell me you have some proof to back up your ridiculous claim.”

“You’re the only one here who knew about the Black Mask’s costume,” Dick points out, “no one else has seen him but you. You’re clever, sure, and very perceptive. Honestly, if you weren’t a serial killer I think you’d make a pretty good detective. But my guess is, that’s not even your real title here, is it?”

“And what makes you think I’m lying?” Akechi asks, sticking to a calm tone of voice. Dick points to the list in Togami’s hand. Specifically, he indicates the one that read ‘Ultimate Hacker.’

“You’re not the only one hiding you real title,” Dick pulls out his e-handbook which reads ‘Ultimate Acrobat’, “If I’m wrong about this, then you’ll show us your e-handbook!”

The entire courtroom becomes silent as Akechi slowly clutches the ends of his stand and bows his head slowly.

“Cat got your tongue?” Tina smirks.

“Dude…” Ryuji mumbles, “I knew you were hiding something but… is this for real?”

“For… real…?” Akechi whispers and suddenly whips his head up, “Of course it is! And can you fucking blame me? Do any of you know what it’s like to have your life destroyed by a father who couldn’t give less of a shit about you?!”

“That’s why you kill?!” Gaige asks, “Severe daddy issues?!”

“Don’t you fucking judge me!” Akechi shouts back, “My reasons aren’t as shallow as that! I’ve never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it or got in my way.”

“Then what the hell did Wakaba do?!” Ryuji asks him, “You killed Futaba’s mom, didn’t you?”

Akechi inhales deeply in an attempt to calm himself, “I don’t have to explain myself to you. Not here anyway. We’re trying to solve who killed Artemis, are we not? As far as I am aware, my past crimes are not the ones in question here.”

Tiny Tina starts to giggle, “You switch personalities faster than I can make badonkadonks! And we already know you killed her, don’t we?”

Akechi nods, “Very well. I suppose you’d like me to explain exactly how I did it-,”

“Stop!” Barbara shouts, “He didn’t kill anyone! At least… not since we got here. He was with me when Artemis died.”

Togami rolls his eyes, “We know, for some reason you decided to cover up the crime and help him.”

Just when Barbara’s about to object, Naegi speaks first, “Wait, that can’t be right… Sanageyama, you told me just before we got onto the lift that there’s some piece of irrefutable evidence we have against Barbara and Akechi. Do you have it with you?”

Sanageyama pulls the crumpled-up piece of paper from his pocket, “Yeah, Dick said it looked like it came from Akechi’s notebook. Still… I’m curious as to where the pages from the other book went…”

“Then I think we can use that to prove their innocence,” Naegi says, “Sanageyama, when did you get that paper?”

“Right after Dick stormed out of her room,” He points to Babs.

“And Akechi,” Naegi says, turning to him now, “Can you confirm that you wrote that and gave it to Barbara?”

Akechi sighs, “I believe that was already well established.”

As Naegi asks his questions, clarifying each part of the letter and how it was discovered in Babs’ room, Dick thinks over why Naegi was trying so hard to make sure that the letter was real. He looks down at his notes, where he had written the contents of the letter and it finally clicks.

_‘Artemis is going to be in the library around 6. Use that time wisely.’_

* * *

_Akechi leans against his doorframe, “I overheard-,”_

_“Eavesdropped,” Dick assume, and Akechi rolls his eyes._

_“Fine, eavesdropped on something the archer had said this morning. I don’t know who she was talking to, but she mentioned going to the library, and then because I didn’t want anyone to eavesdrop on me, I went to the nearest place in this hotel which has any paper and pens and wrote that message down._

* * *

“Akechi, why did you say that Artemis was going to be in the library at 6?”

“Hmm?” Akechi looks over to Dick, “I believed she would be in the library at 6 because that was her original plan. I overhe- eavesdropped on a conversation she had. She mentioned that she was going to be in the library at 6. For… certain reasons we were going to use the library just before she arrived.”

“Certain reasons?” Togami asks, but Dick stops him.

“They won’t tell us. For now, we’ll leave it at that.”

“That’s unprofessional!” Gamagoori shouts, “If you’re not willing to press them on that, you have no resolve, no honour!”

Rose rolls her eyes as well, “honour or not, he’s kinda got a point, I mean unless you’ve got some other evidence supporting your theory, I’d say they’re still not in the clear.”

Dick thinks back to the circumstances of the case, and down at his notes. There must’ve been something, anything that would explain why Barbara was behaving so strangely. Maybe he couldn’t get her to say it, but he could try and defend her, “Monokuma, I’d like to confirm something…”

“What now?” The bear asks, clearly annoyed.

“The body discovery announcement, does it include the killer?”

“No of course not! Only if they discovered the body for the first time!” Monokuma snaps at him, “Besides, stop using it as a clue, it’s just a way of letting everyone know a body has been found. It’s not evidence!”

“Why’d you ask about that?” Gaige inquires.

“Because it rang as soon as I found Artemis,” Dick informs her, “Meaning that two other people found her before I did. We already established last time that three people need to find a body for the announcement to be made. If I’m right about this, then the two of you found Artemis before I did,” He looks up, “Unless someone else found the body before then?”

When no one replies, Dick unintentionally lets out a sigh of relief, “So, can we move on with the case?”

“Yes! Yes!” Monokuma cheers, “I’m starting to get bored already and you didn’t finish discussing the murder weapon! We know it wasn’t the knife but then what could it beeeee?”

Naegi shakes his head, “No, I think we should start at the beginning. If what Akechi said is true, then Artemis was going to meet someone in the library. If I had to guess, I’d say it was in secret, given that she hadn’t informed Dick about it. Dick said he would be in the library at six and asking him to get there later would’ve been suspicious. So instead, she changed her meeting time. Given what we know, I’d say the person she was meeting with was her killer.”

“Foolish girl,” Kiryuuin shakes her head, “Keeping secrets from us is exactly how she got into this situation in the first place.”

“Don’t blame the victim,” Pamela clenches her fist, “Why did she meet with someone in the first place?”

“It’s gotta be the motive, right?” Ryuji asks, “Maybe she figured out who’s secret it belonged to?”

“Or perhaps she wanted to confide in someone,” Akechi suggests.

“No that’s not it,” Dick shakes his head, “She would’ve talked to me or Babs…”

“Actually…” Babs trails off, “I already know that the secret Monokuma was about to reveal was actually hers. She already told me about her family and what her dad used to make her do… it’s not completely a secret, but rather something she doesn’t like bringing up.”

“What?” Rose asks, “Then why didn’t she just tell everyone about it? Was she just going to tell the killer then?”

“I assume she had the same mindset as me,” Akechi thinks out loud, “I wasn’t too worried about you all finding out about that secret… while parts of my motivation may have been different, ultimately I wanted to give everyone as much time as possible before the next secret was revealed.”

“So then… why did she die?” Sanageyama asks, “I mean, if she was just gonna talk to someone then why would they kill her? Did they not like what they heard?”

Gaige smirks, “Killing someone because they killed a bunch of strangers seems pretty ironic if you ask me.”

“Whatever their motive may be, we know that a fight broke out,” Togami says, “We can infer as much from the state we found the library in.”

“Yeah, we agreed on that earlier-,” Dick tries to agree, but Gamagoori butts in.

“That’s impossible!” Gamagoori shouts, “weren’t there people in the pool? You must have heard something if a fight broke out! Your logic has holes in it!”

“Huh?” Dick asks, not expecting such an aggressive rebuttal, “No, I’m pretty sure a fight did break out.”

“Don’t underestimate the logic of the disciplinary committee!” Gamagoori shouts again.

* * *

**REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN**

“I know that whenever I get into a fight, I make a lot of noise!” Gamagoori explains, “the library is right next door to the pool! So, then they would have made enough noise for us to hear!”

“Not necessarily,” Dick refutes his arguments, “A fight obviously broke out, because of the state of the library”

“Maybe the killer just threw the chairs and tables around to make us think a fight broke out!” Gamagoori argues further, “But I’m sure, that even with the door closed, we definitely would have heard a fight!”

“No, that’s wrong!” Dick quickly presents his evidence, “Monokuma told us himself. The library is completely soundproofed. Just like our rooms, once the doors closed then you can’t hear anything going on outside of the library, as well as what’s going on inside.”

**BREAK**

* * *

“Oh…” Gamagoori looks away briefly, before pointing at Dick, “Then carry on with the good work that you have been doing!”

Dick shakes his head, still getting used to how over the top Gamagoori could be, “But that makes me think… if a fight broke out then the whole thing could’ve been an accident.”

This time, Babs raises an objection, “No, there’s no way all of this was an accident. There’s a piece of evidence that suggests that the killer went in there knowing they were going to kill Artemis.”

Dick looks down at his evidence list, flipping the page, “You’re right… that goes all the way back to the kitchen knife we found. There’s no reason why it should’ve been there unless someone went to the library to stab someone else.”

“I don’t get it,” Gaige shakes her head, “If the killer went in there to kill Artemis, who expected them to come in, couldn’t they have just surprised her? Then why’d the fight break out?”

Togami pulls out his e-handbook, “The explanation for that is probably in the Monokuma File, right, Grayson?”

“Artemis did get stabbed,” Dick confirms, “but I don’t think it was fatal. That’s why we aren’t given a cause of death, because then we would’ve known for sure that she fought against her killer. Without the blood on the costume we probably would’ve assumed that Akechi had just staged the whole thing to make it look like a fight.”

“While the drive-by was unnecessary, I must agree,” Akechi nods, “Those aren’t all of the mysteries of this case. I believe you have yet to explain why you found the costume in Barbara’s room.”

“To cover for your sorry ass obviously,” Ryuji mutters, but loudly enough that most of the guests hear him.

“Yes,” Kiryuuin agrees, “but why was it necessary for them to do that in the first place? Shouldn’t the costume have been in the storage room?”

“Ooh, I know this one!” Tiny Tina jumps up, “Akechi isn’t actually the Black Mask!”

Having put up with Tina’s antics for the past week, Dick is hardly surprised that that’s the conclusion she comes to, “No, Akechi is definitely the Black Mask. I think the real killer was trying to set up the Black Mask in the first place.”

“Did they know it was Akechi?” Naegi asks, “How’d they figure it out?”

Dick shakes his head, “No, they never figured it out, otherwise they would’ve left some more clues pointing to Akechi. We only found out because of the list Monokuma gave us,” Dick points out, “But they definitely wanted to frame the Black Mask and confuse us as much as possible. They used the costume to clear up the crime scene and left one more item behind, a piece of the Black Mask visor. They left behind the knife so we’d think that she was stabbed, when really, she was bludgeoned to death.”

“With what?” Pamela asks, “Aren’t there loads of heavy objects in the weapons room?”

Sanageyama shakes his head, “Nothing we found was used in this crime according to Rose. Other than the missing weapons we took and the Black Mask stuff, everything in there was the same.”

“What about the lamp?” Gaige asks, “We all saw the broken lamp next to the body, maybe that could’ve done it?”

Togami disagrees, “I didn’t see any glass on the body and the lamp was clearly broken. We would have found something.”

“Maybe it’s that book, the Sherlock Holmes Collection,” Rose suggests, “That must weigh a bunch, right?”

“Yeah but we didn’t find any blood on it,” Sanageyama says, “though there were some pages missing from it…”

* * *

_As he’s lowering his head, Dick spots something shining from the bookshelf where Sanageyama found picked up the book, “what’s that?”_

_Sanageyama turns around and pulls the object that lay behind the books. He throws it over to Togami, who inspects it carefully, “It’s a candle stick holder. I saw it on the table here before, but it was covered in dust,” Togami smirks, “however, a spotless candlestick holder hiding behind a Sherlock Holmes collection seems quite cliché, with a hint of irony.”_

* * *

“No, not necessarily,” Dick argues, “We barely noticed it as well, and we just got lucky… actually wait, something here doesn’t add up,” he thinks back to when they found the candle stick, and everything else surrounding the class trial.

Togami fixes his glasses, “I agree. I think we can now determine who the killer is.”

Dick turns towards the person he thought he heard slip up, “Rose, how did you know about the Sherlock Holmes collection?”

“Huh?” Rose raises an eyebrow, “We said some book was used, right? I just assumed it might’ve been used to club Artemis.”

_Sanageyama pulls the crumpled-up piece of paper from his pocket, “Yeah, Dick said it looked like it came from Akechi’s notebook. Still… I’m curious as to where the pages from the other book went…”_

Dick clenches his fist, angry that he was right about his hunch, “Rose… we never referred to the book by name. And you weren’t there when we pulled it out.”

Rose’s jaw drops, “You seriously think I would’ve killed Artemis? That evidence is circumstantial at best and you know it.”

Kiryuuin nods, “I must agree with her, using a book is unconventional and unlikely."

“Because a book wasn’t used, it was the candlestick holder behind it,” Dick informs her.

“If she just dumped a candlestick holder behind a book-,” Ryuji begins, “Then how would she even remember what book it was? I mean we knew Monokuma had some murder mysteries in the library so that could’ve just been a coincidence.”

“Quite the coincidence,” Togami smirks.

“No, she remembered it,” Dick reassures them, “She’s got an eidetic memory. That’s how she was able to perfectly recall the weapons we used, and how she remembered where she left the candlestick holder.”

“Suppose I did kill her,” Rose starts, remaining calm on the outside, “What possible reason would I have for killing her? And why would she ask me to meet with her?”

“You’re the only one on the team who didn’t know about her secret,” Babs explains, “She wanted to tell you before you would find out from Monokuma… and the reason for why you killed her probably goes back to the original motive. Togami, could I see that list?”

He passes it over to Kiryuuin, who gives it to Barbara. She reads through it quickly, “Rose… what did you say your ability was?”

“It was… Ultimate Dual-Wielder,” Rose says slowly, “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I don’t take you for a masochist, I know neither of your brothers got poisoned, you don’t have amnesia beyond our circumstances, in the time you’ve been on the team no one’s died. That leaves us only with Ultimate Hacker or that you lied about your ability. So then, if you’d like to prove your innocence and show us that you’ve nothing to hide, show us your handbook.”

Without hesitating, she pulls out her handbook, revealing her true ability, Ultimate Soldier, “Fine, that might be my ability, but that doesn’t mean I killed her. I mean, if I clubbed her to death wouldn’t I have blood all over me?”

He didn’t want Babs to be right but given what they knew now, there was little doubt that it was her, “you threw it. You threw the candlestick holder at her,” he concludes, “You’ve got enhanced strength and precognition. It wouldn’t be hard for you to dodge Artemis’ attacks to avoid getting blood on you while you were fighting, and you’re one of the few people here who’s strong enough to cause Artemis’ head to cave in like that.”

Rose pauses briefly, while everyone awaits her to reply. Eventually, she has a rebuttal, “Why the hell would I kill Artemis?”

“There… there is one reason I can think of,” Dick thinks out loud, “If you’re the Ultimate Soldier then it means you’re loyal to someone, you listen and execute all of their orders without hesitation. That person isn’t anyone on the team, is it?”

Rose chuckles, “So you think I’m a traitor? Well, I guess the jig is up,” her expression slowly changes, becoming more and more crazed and her uncovered eye looks past Dick, looking out into the distance, “Yes, I never worked for you or that team you used to be part of. I’m only loyal to Deathstroke.”

Dick clenches his fist. He knew about Deathstroke drugging her into making her loyal, but he was there when she defied him, so why was she acting like she was still under his control? None of this made sense… not unless she forgot about her defiance.

“Are we done here then?” Togami asks, “Should we vote?”

“No,” Dick says, looking down at the ground, “I want to go over this case one more time. I want to make sure that we’ve got this right.”

* * *

**CLOSING ARGUMENT**

_Last night, Artemis went to see someone and asked them if they could meet her in the library the next day at 6. Supposedly, she wanted to tell them about her secret. Unbeknownst to her, Akechi had eavesdropped on her conversation and expected her to show up there the next day, which he told Barbara about through a letter._

_The next day, hearing that I would be in the library the same time she changed the meeting time to an hour earlier. Artemis went to the library around 5 and waited for her confidant to show up. What she didn’t know was that that person was already planning to kill her._

_Her killer took a kitchen knife and went to meet her victim. Once there, she attacked Artemis and stabbed her. However, she probably didn’t expect Artemis to recover from that so quickly. The two started to fight in the library which explains how the library was such a mess when we got there._

_No one at the pool could hear any of this, because the library is completely soundproofed._

_As the fight went on, I imagine Artemis was becoming weaker from the blood loss. The killer must have tried to throw the lamp at her, but they missed. After that, they picked the candlestick holder up and threw it at Artemis’ head. They were able to do so much damage to her because they had enhanced strength, and because of this, Artemis died instantly._

_The killer then started working on the next phase of their murder. They had to cover up their crime, but they didn’t have any way to pin it on any particular person. Which was why they went to the storage room and recovered the Black Mask costume. They broke a piece of the visor and threw it into the library. Using the material, they cleaned the blood of as many surfaces as possible. I imagine that the reason we couldn’t find the missing pages of the Sherlock Holmes Collection was because they also used those to wipe the blood off the candlestick, and then disposed of it._

_After that, they left the candlestick holder behind the book, which would prove to be their downfall. They left the library, dumping the costume behind._

_There was only one problem. Akechi and Barbara were planning to arrive at the library before Artemis, but instead, they found her laying on the ground, dead. Barbara must have known that Akechi was the Black Mask, which was why she stole the costume and hid it in her room so that no one could pin the crime on him._

_We almost thought that Akechi had killed Artemis, because the true killer had almost created the perfect set up. Isn’t that right, Rose?_

* * *

The room once again falls silent, and everyone awaits an explanation from Rose, or Monokuma’s announcement about voting. The latter unfortunately comes first.

“It’s time for everyone’s favour part of the trial!” Monokuma exclaims from his seat, “You must now cast your votes for who you think the killer is!”

A small lever appears on the stand in front of Dick. Reluctantly, he takes a hold of it.

“Please use the lever in front of you to make your selection,” Monokuma blushes, “Who will be chosen as the blackened? Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? What’s it gonna be? What’s it gonna beeee?!” Monokuma cheers on.

When all of the votes are in, the screen above Monokuma switches on. The same slot machine as before shows up and all of their faces scroll past, the ones of the dead guests black and white instead of the usual colourful ones. The slot machine slows down until three pictures of Rose line up perfectly. Celebratory music plays over the speakers and confetti surrounds the screen as the word ‘GUILTY’ flashes on the screen.

“Ding, ding, ding!” Monkuma jumps up on his chair, “Looks like you got it right once again! And this time around, I have a little surprise for you all. Although it will have to wait until after the punishment!”

“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” Barbara asks her, ignoring Monokuma’s announcement, “You fought beside her, we all did. She treated you like one of our own and you murdered her in cold blood.”

Rose raises and eyebrow and looks in her direction, “You sure you want to go there? I mean, you did just help a serial killer cover up a crime. It wasn’t his but there wasn’t any real reason backed up by evidence for why you’d think that,” Rose shakes her head, “No, I guess if these are my last moments then I shouldn’t waste them on being petty. I do want to know though… was it worth it? Lying to everyone here, to Dick?”

Babs closes her eyes and slowly nods, “It has to be.”

Rose smiles lightly and moves her hands to her eyepatch. She carefully removes it and places it on her stand, “I… respected Artemis, really. No one could’ve put up a fight like that against me but her. I guess in a different world, in a different situation, we could’ve been friends, or maybe great rivals.”

“Ugh!” Monokuma pretends to throw up behind his throne, “Enough with the sentimentality already! You killed her cos you didn’t want her telling anyone that you’re actually a traitor! Not because of some grand reasoning or whatever! Face it, you just want to get out of here!”

“Don’t we all?” Pamela asks, “Since the first day we got here, we’ve all been dreaming of escape. I can hardly judge anyone for murder but what you’re doing… it’s sickening. Rose killed Artemis, but we all know that you’re the one who pushed her to it.”

“Just like you did with Monika,” Ryuji says, gritting his teeth.

“Yeah well, rules are rules! Even I have to obey some. Speaking of which…” Monokuma points over to Rose, “I’ve prepared a very special punishment for you, the Ultimate Soldier! Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s PUNISHMENT TIIIME!”

Monokuma pulls out a gavel, and a big red button emerges in front of him. He smacks it with the gavel, and the monitor above him changes images. In the middle of a red screen, a black and white 8-bit version of Rose appears. Above her is written ‘GAME OVER’ in white pixels on a black background. A similar 8-bit version of Monokuma appears from the left side of the screen as some 8-bit sound effects come on and makes its way over to Rose, who appeared to be calm. Bellow them some text is typed out, ‘ROSE HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY.’

As the bear reaches Rose, the pixels change and Monokuma is dragging Rose away by a rope, with her thrashing her feet around on the ground. The final bit of text is typed out, ‘TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!’

* * *

**TRAITORS NEVER WIN**

Rose appears in the middle of a battlefield. No one else appears at first, and she manages to see two katanas stabbed in the ground a short distance away. She runs towards them, picks up a couple of rocks on the way and throws them ahead of her.

The ground where the rocks land explodes, and she runs past the smoke, dodging any other mines she manages to spot at the last second.

As she gets closer, a Monokuma appears and starts clawing at her. Rose manages to expertly dodge all of its attacks and kicks it away. She grabs the two katanas, which results in more and more Monokuma’s showing up. The first wave comes, but all of the Monokuma’s only wield melee weapons. Each has a different one.

As they surround her, she gets a few cuts and bruises, her clothes occasionally tearing, but otherwise manages to defeat them.

Once the first wave of Monokuma’s is down, more appear and run at her, this time armed with guns, crossbows, slingshots and many other long ranged weaponries.

As they shoot at her, she manages to dodge most of the attacks as well, only getting a few scrapes. One of the bullets hits her in the left shoulder, and she drops her katana in her left hand. Still, she continues dodging until she manages to take one of them down. She steals its assault rifle, drops the other katana and begins shooting at the rest.

When she hits them all, there’s a long silence. Then, the ground begins to tremble, and ahead of her, a giant Monokuma emerges from the ground.

She quickly reloads her gun and preps herself for what looked like the final battle. However, the one thing even she couldn’t predict was the entire fight being cut off by a massive meteor heading in their direction.

With nowhere to run or hide, she drops the assault rifle. The last thing she sees before it crushes her is the giant Monokuma laughing away.


	10. A Life of Crime- END

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the second class trial over, the guests try to retreat to their rooms. Unfortunately, Monokuma has yet to reveal his surprise.

The remaining guests keep their eyes trained on the screen, even after it’s long gone dark and they knew that neither Artemis nor Rose would be coming back to them.

“That’s right!” Monokuma exclaims when he suddenly reappears on his throne, “I almost forgot about our little surprise! One of you has been very naughty! Now I don’t yet know what they did, but two of my cameras don’t work like they should be… so until they tell me exactly what they did or until one of you kills again, I’ll be keeping some totally random person hostage right here!”

“What?” Akechi looks down from the screen to the bear, “That was never in the rules!”

“Rules schmules!” Monokuma waves his hand, “Who cares about those when I can’t see what you troublemakers get up to!”

“But you said that even you have to-!” Naegi objects, but Monokuma cuts him off.

“That’s enough!” He growls and points towards the group, “Eeenie, meenie, miney, you!” He points directly at Barbara, “As the Ultimate Hacker, you must know something about this, right? Besides, everyone here knows you’ve been sneaking around with the local bad/murdering boy, so it was probably you anyway!”

“What?!” Dick glances between his girlfriend and Monokuma. There was no way she broke one of his rules… she wouldn’t be that reckless, “She can’t be the Ultimate Hacker, I saw her handbook and it read ‘Ultimate Librarian!’ You’re just trying to make up another reason for us to kill each other!”

“Puhuhuhuhuh!” Monokuma laughs, holding onto his stomach and showing his razor-sharp teeth, “Me? I’m not making anything up! If anyone, it’s all of you that are lying to each other! Just ask her!”

Everyone turns to Barbara expectantly, whose expression hadn’t changed since Monokuma’s announcement, as if she expected something like this to happen, “He’s… he’s right… I actually changed my title in my handbook. I thought that it’s a skill that might be useful here but… I didn’t want to advertise it in case something like this happened,” Barbara turns her attention to Monokuma, “You can keep me here as long as you like, Monokuma, but even if I knew something about those cameras, I would never tell you!”

“No!” Dick shouts, “Babs, you can’t! Dammit, you can’t do this Monokuma!”

“Can and will!” Monokuma laughs, “Besides, how do you plan on stopping me if you’re asleep?”

Just as Monokuma says that, Dick begins to feel woozy, and judging by how the others were swaying, he could only guess they were feeling the same way, “If… I’m… asleep…?”

“Ahahahahah! Guess I forgot to tell you all that this room started filling up with sleeping gas for the past two minutes!” Monokuma looks to the side, “Took waaaaay longer to take effect then the packaging said,” He grumbles.

He tries to stay standing, but Dick falls to his knees and his eyelids slowly fall. He hears thuds around him, indicating how the gas had already sent some of the others to sleep, “Dammit… Babs….?”

“Y-yeah…?” He hears her voice close to him.

“We’ll… get you… out of here…. I promise…”

“I’ll… hold you to it…. Boy Wonder.”

* * *

When Dick wakes up, he’s back in his own room. Except it wasn’t his room, not really. It was just some replica, a fake, just like everything else in the hotel.

He quickly gets out of bed and scrambles out into the corridor. He strides over to Barbara’s room and pounds on the door, but there’s no reply. He considers checking the dining hall, the library and the computer room, but he already knew that it would be to no avail. Barbara was trapped down in the courtroom, with nothing but the stands, a tv and a psychotic mechanical bear.

Nevertheless, he walks upstairs and checks for her, or anything she might have left behind that Monokuma hadn’t noticed. Instead, the first thing he finds is Akechi, tied to one of the chairs,

“Good morning,” Akechi announces as if the entire situation was completely normal, “Could I ask you to bring me some water?”

“What… what did I miss? Also… good morning? It’s the middle of the night, isn’t it?”

Akechi nods, “True the knockout gas was powerful and with the lack of windows it’s quite difficult to tell what time it is. But according to that clock it’s already 10, and I don’t think we were out for much longer than 9 hours. As for what you have missed…”

* * *

_I must have been one of the first to wake since by the time I entered the dining hall there was no one there. We missed the morning announcement but since the trial took some time, I guessed that when the clock read 8, it was in the morning._

_Not long after I brewed some coffee, Sakamoto, Kiryuuin and Gamagoori came into the dining hall._

“Pretty bold of you to show your face after that trial,” _Sakamoto had said first._

“What? Oh, you’re referring to my true status as the Ultimate Liar, correct?”

“That’s your real title?” _Gamagoori asked._

“Yes but take this however you will; despite being the Black Mask Killer, I’ve no intention of playing along with Monokuma’s rules to win this killing game by means of murder.”

“What about before we found out?” _Sakamoto asked._

 _Perhaps I shouldn’t have smirked at that, but I did and told him the truth,_ “Tell me, Sakamoto, on the night of Takamaki’s murder, do you honestly believe that I was simply reading and happened to witness Monika murdering her?”

 _Kiryuuin had finally given her own input, which was quite unfortunate for me, “_ You planned on killing Takamaki while placing the blame on Monika. Which was why you never intervened. I should have known someone as despicable as you would have already tried something,” _she then turned to her… thug, “_ Take this pig away and make sure he can’t leave of his own accord.”

* * *

Dick can’t help but smirk at the situation himself, “You do deserve it to be honest. You shouldn’t have been that glib about it all, especially not to Ryuji. But then tell me… why did Babs trust you so much?”

Akechi tries to turn his head as far back as possible and looks to the camera, then back at Dick, “Before that, tell me. What did Monokuma mean when he said two of his cameras weren’t working?”

He thinks back to Monokuma’s threat and it hits him. Monokuma did say two, but as far as Dick knew, there was only one camera that was slightly damaged, and it was in the library. Not to mention he, Artemis and Barbara were the only ones who supposedly knew about it, “You already know about the library one I’m guessing, and if you’re bringing this up in here, then the one in this room doesn’t work either.”

“Yes, so then, who was the one that broke the second camera?”

“That must’ve been Babs,” Dick concludes, “Otherwise Monokuma wouldn’t have locked her downstairs.”

“Correct once again. Then I have one more question for you and I’ll answer all of yours,” Akechi smiles, “Why was she late to the investigation?”

“She was breaking the cameras. She knew Monokuma would be busy with explaining the Monokuma File, so she could do it without getting caught,” Dick replies and Barbara’s plan slowly dawns on him, “She needed an opportunity to break the camera, that’s why you told her to use her time wisely. What… what were you going to do anyway? Why did you go to the library in the first place?”

Akechi looks away from Dick and down at his lap, “Gordon had a theory that whoever’s controlling Monokuma can only control him or look at the surveillance cameras, not both. She said that if Monokuma was one person then it would be impossible for them to do both and so we needed to find a way to get that person to control Monokuma for a longer period of time. Unfortunately, there’s only one sure-fire way to do that without raising suspicion.”

“You were going to kill someone?” Dick raises an eyebrow. Barbara wouldn’t have allowed for that, not to mention a murder would mean that one or the other would have to die, “That’s a terrible plan.”

“We thought so too,” Akechi agrees, “Which is why we were only gonna fake my murder. Monokuma already knew we had been working together and so a falling out wouldn’t have been out of character. We would have used fake blood we made ourselves in the kitchen with the supplies provided to us and hoped that you would leave investigating my body till the last. While I lay in the library, Gordon would have gone up to the computer room, and soon after, Crock would discover the body. We didn’t think that she would have arrived earlier only to be murdered by Wilson.”

“Right…” Dick process all of the information in his head. Faking a death wasn’t exactly breaking the rules but Monokuma would have been pissed if he’d found out and there was no telling how he would’ve reacted to it, “How were you going to explain it to us? Or to Monokuma?”

“There’s no rule against investigating that bear. We were simply going to say that it was a test to see the extent of Monokuma’s abilities. Of course, this wouldn’t technically be a lie as we were wondering if Monokuma would fall for this in the first place.”

There was still one more thing he didn’t understand. Why did Babs trust the Ultimate Liar over him? Why didn’t she ask him for help?

Akechi answers before Dick could ask the question, as if reading his mind, “She didn’t want to put you in harm’s way. She knew the plan was risky and decided to keep it on a need to know basis. She was the first to figure out why I had actually witnessed Takamaki’s murder. I had considered killing her, but in the long run I knew that you would have figured it out immediately. As such, I decided that it was best for me to play the long game and figure out a way to escape instead of trying to fight my way out against 13 other people. As for Gordon, I don’t think she already had a plan back then but I’m sure she knew that having someone act as her accomplice in all of this would have benefitted her greatly.”

Dick wanted to be angry at Babs, for lying and not telling him any of this, but was he really one to judge? “I’ve got one more question,” He points to the binds, “Was all of this worth it?”

Akechi shrugs, “I have no idea why she wanted to break the cameras here. This is the first time I’ve come into this room since the investigation. I fear that it may be up to you to figure out what exactly Barbara Gordon was doing in here for such a long time. Despite asking me to be her accomplice, she never explained the full extent of her plan or if she had discovered anything. She couldn’t trust someone like me entirely after all.”

Getting as much as he could out of Akechi, Dick is tempted to leave him there, but Akechi was smarter than going around killing people now that his secrets were out, and so far he’s proven himself to be more of an asset than an obstacle. He walks over and unties Akechi from the chair, “Wait… where did this rope come from? We definitely didn’t have something like this before.”

“Oh, haven’t you heard?” Akechi stands up and rubs his wrists, “The third floor has now been opened.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! And all I really have to say is that I've added a few more chapters, and hopefully will be updating a little more often now... hopefully...


	11. Eye for an Eye, Blood for Blood- Daily Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barbara's trapped downstairs and Dick still has no clues leading to Monokuma's identity.

Akechi was right, and once again, everyone had known about the next floor opening before Dick did. Since neither him nor Akechi had the chance to investigate it yet, they decide to go together. Maybe there he’d find some clues about Monokuma, or some way to break down the door of the courtroom.

They reach the newest floor and find a long corridor which turned right at the end. There are three doors in total, one on the right and two on the left. Dick walks ahead before waiting for any of Akechi’s suggestions and walks through the set of wooden double doors on the right. This door apparently leads to a bar.

There are a couple of booths around, a dart board and pool table off to the side and a fully stocked bar at the back, with beer taps and a shelf with bottles filled with alcohol at the back, “I see Monokuma didn’t hold back on the expenses,” Akechi jokes morbidly, “However I don’t think any of this will be used for celebration.”

“What’s worth celebrating in this hell hole?” Dick asks and walks round to the bar, and looks between the various glasses, “I don’t think there’s anything here. Or if there is, one of the others took it. Have the others investigated this floor yet?”

Akechi shrugs and starts to swipe his hand under each booth, “Togami showed some interest in what the others were doing. Knowing him, he was here, although I doubt you’d be able to get any solid information out of him.”

“He seemed pretty chatty during the last investigation,” Dick continues looking around the bar while Akechi sits down in a booth.

“Because you were closest to the one person who was missing. He’s always out to be the one who knows the most at any given time,” Akechi explains.

“Which explains his disdain towards you,” Dick says more as a throwaway comment, but it causes Akechi to look up.

“He doesn’t like me?”

Dick raises an eyebrow at Akechi’s surprised. It’s hardly a secret that he was the only one left who put up with him, and if anything, it was only due to circumstance, “I mean… he hasn’t confirmed anything, but he didn’t exactly seem to show particular fondness towards you.”

“Oh…” Akechi looks ahead of him, processing the information, “I suppose I’ve only managed to make enemies in here.”

Dick rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. Akechi… was definitely not an easy person to deal with. On one hand, he helped Babs with her investigation and even seemed reluctant to have her pay for both of their rule-breaking. On the other, he was still a murdering psychopath who genuinely considered getting everyone in the hotel killed just so he could escape, “Uh… have you found anything yet?” Dick quickly changes the subject.

Akechi shakes his head and continues his search. He paws around under the table of the booth he’s sitting at and makes a discovery. He presses the button he could feel under the desk and it opens a hidden door by the bar, “Perhaps all we needed was some luck.”

“What are you guys doing here?” Dick and Akechi and find Naegi waiting by the door for an explanation, “I thought Ryuji and the others tied you up in the computer room?” He points to Akechi.

Akechi raises an eyebrow, “I was right, luck clearly had something to do with it,” he mutters before replying to Naegi’s question, “Yes, he did, but I convinced Grayson to untie me so that we could investigate. Do you object?”

Naegi tilts his head left and right while considering his answer. Once he’d weighed all his options, he shrugs, “I guess you’re not dumb enough to try to kill anybody now, and as serial killers go, you’re still probably the most stable one I know.”

Dick finds himself unfortunately agreeing with Naegi, “I can’t believe I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I fully empathise with that statement,” he says as he looks over to the door, “So, are we just going to stand around or should we go check out what this room has?”

Naegi is the first to walk over to the door, and Dick waits behind while Akechi shimmies out of the booth and catches up to them.

Beyond the door is a small room with no decorations, only white walls, a white floor and a white ceiling. The lighting required everyone’s eyes to take some time to adjust, but as soon as they did, they looked around the room. There wasn’t much to it, as it mainly consisted of a desk, an adjoining chair and a bookshelf.

However, unlike the bookshelves in the library, this one didn’t contain any books on murder. Dick pulls out the first book he reaches for and opens it on a random page, “Class 2D of Shujin Academy,” he reads out loud and looks over it, “It’s just a list of names but… wait, isn’t that Takamaki’s name?” He points to one of the names in the book.

Akechi looks over Dick’s shoulder, but points to a different name, “Amamiya Ren,” he moves his finger down until he hits another one, “Mishima Yuuki… I know the first one, and I recognise the name of the second one… I believe that this list is legitimate.”

Dick flips through the book some more and scans over individual words, “Favourite food… biography…,” He closes the book and looks at the front cover, “Subject 11-16… I think this is an entire book dedicated to Takamaki, all of the information on her.”

Naegi pulls out another this one called ‘Subject 02-16.’ He opens it up on a random page, “Zeta designation B-0-1, founding member of a black op’s team for the Justice Lea-,”

Dick hastily puts away Takamaki’s book and snatches what appeared to be his own from Naegi, “Seriously?” He flips through it and reaches his own biography. He doesn’t read all of it but there were many sections which certainly weren’t public knowledge, “This… it’s my whole life, it’s everything about me.”

“Like a Wikipedia page in book form?” Akechi asks and begins searching for his own.

Dick shakes his head, “It’s more than that, a lot of this is knowledge only a select few would know about, none of who were here to begin with,” he closes his book, “How the hell did Monokuma get this information?”

The two detectives turn expectantly to Naegi, who raises his hands up defensively, “I don’t know! Last time it was our classmate who controlled Monokuma and started the killing game… Junko knew everything about us because we told her everything and she wiped our memories, making us think that we were all complete strangers who didn’t already know each other’s secrets… this… it doesn’t feel the same.”

“You don’t think our memories were wiped?” Dick asks, “how could we possibly know if they have?”

Naegi winces, “Call it a gut feeling but… there’s nothing fuzzy in my memory. Last time I could remember walking into Hope’s Peak but then everything went fuzzy… here I just remember going to bed back where I’m from then waking up here.”

Akechi takes out a book and flips through it as well, “In that case, the only logical explanation is that we’ve been abducted.”

Dick shakes his head, “That doesn’t explain how they’ve got all of this information,” he points to the book, “There’s no way someone could just abduct 16 people, lock them in a hotel and execute them in such over the top ways either.”

“When you have excluded the impossible whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” Akechi quotes, “I suppose while this provides us with some idea about how much power the true culprit has, it’s not helpful in our immediate situation. We still have no ideas about who’s controlling that bear.”

When no one immediately replies, the room becomes silent. It was true. Four dead, one person whose fate is unknown, and they had no suspects or leads on who Monokuma might be.

“Why don’t we make a list?” Naegi suggests, “Of suspects, I mean. Some of you must have some idea of who Monokuma might be. While we’ve got no solid evidence, it wouldn’t hurt to consider our options.”

“That’s… not a terrible idea,” Dick admits, “but first we’ve got to figure out what to do with this. Everyone grab some books. We’ll take them downstairs and see what everyone else thinks.”

* * *

“You untied him?!” Ryuji gets out of his chair in the dining hall so quickly that it falls over behind him, “Why the hell would you do that?! Did he tell you what he was planning on doing?!”

Luckily for them, all of the remaining guests excluding Tina, Gamagoori and Gaige are already in the dining hall.

“Yeah, he did,” Dick nods and places the stack of books on the table with a thud, “I’ll keep an eye on him if it’ll make you more comfortable with the idea. You do realise that if you’d left him there to starve, you’d become the blackened?”

“W-what? Hell no!” Ryuji pulls out his e-handbook and flicks through the rules, “There ain’t no rule like that! I wouldn’t have killed him!”

“Nice try Sakamoto!” Monokuma appears at the end of the dining hall table, “But nope, you’re wrong!” He jumps onto the table and twirls around, “If you tied him up and let him starve, you would’ve left him to die, right? And the only way a death here doesn’t count as murder is if one of you gets sick and dies! But because that would be suuuuuper boring, I’m gonna make sure none of you die that way!”

“Then what would happen if someone were to commit suicide?” Pamela asks, “Would there still be a class trial?”

“But of course!” Monokuma stops twirling, “If you’ve killed yourself, then that’s still killing someone, right? So, then you become the blackened! Of course, if the others figure it out then I won’t be able to punish anyone but I guess in a pinch I could put all of your names in a lottery and see which unlucky guest would take the blackened’s place!”

Togami huffs, “Then you’ll even punish someone innocent just for your own sadistic pleasure? Good to know.”

“Well if that’s all, then you know what to doooooo!” Monokuma exclaims in sing song, “Get killing!” He jumps back behind the table and vanishes.

“Moving on,” Sanageyama points to the books, “Why’d you bring a bunch of books here?”

Naegi is quick to explain as he lays out the books, “We found these in a hidden room at the bar. They’re books with all of our info in them.”

“ _All_ of our information?” Togami takes an interest and wanders over, “how is that even possible?”

Naegi picks up his own book and reads a passage from it, “After the supposed death of fellow classmate Kyoko Kirigiri, Makoto slowly began piecing together the truth of the killing game taking place at the Future Foundation. Risking his own life, he tied himself up to test his theory that the killers of the killing game, were the victims themselves,” He looks up, “That incident was kept under tabs, and almost no one knows about it. Togami, you don’t think you could’ve told Monokuma about that?”

Togami scoffs, “I would never provide any intel to someone who fights for Ultimate Despair, not knowingly. You are right, however. No one we know would give that information out to just anyone.”

“Okay so they shouldn’t know that info but since we’ve got it now, what do we do?” Ryuji asks, looking for his own book.

Kiryuuin walks over, “We take our own and keep it in our rooms. Leaving them lying around would be foolish.”

“And what about the books of the people who died? And what of Barbara’s?” Pamela asks, “We can’t exactly give them those books. We don’t even have access to their rooms.”

“I’ll take Ann’s,” Ryuji immediately suggests, “I mean… we practically grew up together, I’ve got no reason to look through hers anyway.”

No one seems to disagree, and so Dick makes another suggestion, “I’ll take Artemis’. She… was a close friend who I trusted with almost everything. I would never do anything to break that trust, even now. I’ll take Babs’ too.”

“Very well,” Togami nods, “And what of the others? Out of all of us, you seemed to have gotten along with Wilson and Monika the most.”

Dick winces, “You’re not wrong but…” he trails off, and Sanageyama picks up from him.

“I’ll take em,” he offers and points to the bandana around his eyes, “My senses might be seriously enhanced, but even I can’t read blind. Even if I did get curious, there’s no reason for me to open up those books.”

“Then it’s settled,” Dick agrees, and everyone picks up their books. Only three remain, “Wait… where are the others anyway?”

As if on cue, there’s a loud noise that comes from the lobby, as if an explosion had occurred.

Everyone runs out of the room and Ryuji, being the Ultimate Sprinter, makes it there first, followed by Dick, Sanageyama, Akechi, Naegi, Kiryuuin, Togami and Pamela. Not long after them, Gaige and Gamagoori run in.

The front door of the hotel is covered by some kind of dust, and various plastics, screws and mud lie around the floor. Other than the general mess, everything seemed to be the same. Tiny Tina emerges from behind the reception desk and throws a detonator at the floor, “That was totes supposed to work! How is that stupid door still up?!”

“What the hell?!” Gaige shouts, “We heard that all the way on the third floor! What did you do?!”

Tiny Tina points to the door, “Well I _tried_ to make that door go boom boom but it’s clearly still up up! Or did all of y’all forget who the Ultimate Demolitionist is?!”

“How did you get your hands on these explosives?” Akechi asks in his regular calm tone. Apparently, the fact that the Ultimate Demolitionist, the 13 year old girl with severe trauma and crazy eyes, now had access to her primary weapon didn’t faze him at all.

“The garden, duh!” She points up, “There’s fertiliser and junk in there!”

“There’s a garden here?” Dick asks and looks over to Pamela, “Then wouldn’t you be able to grow something powerful in there?”

Pamela shakes her head, “if you’re asking me to grow something that could help us in our escape then I regret to inform you that I’ve already tried it. While I am capable to growing something in that garden, the moment I take it outside of the indoor garden, it withers away and dies. As for the flora already growing in there, it’s all deadly poison.”

“How would you know that?” Gaige raises an eyebrow.

“She can talk to plants,” Dick simplifies for everyone’s benefit.

Pamela smirks, “I wouldn’t worry about anyone here using it. The rules indicate that one blackened can only kill two people at a time. Targeting one person without raising too much suspicion would be incredibly difficult and not worth the effort. Besides, not everything in there kills instantly.”

“We should still remain cautious,” Akechi urges, “poison is still poison. On that note, apart from the bar and the garden, are there any other rooms that I am not aware of?”

Gamagoori nods, “There’s a gym on the third floor. It’s fully equipped and brand new, but Gaige and I were searching it just now. There’s nothing there.”

Dick sighs, “Then I guess we’re back to square one… God I hope Babs is alright,” he mutters, looking over to the red door leading to the elevator.

* * *

Down in the courtroom, Barbara opened her eyes and found the walls of the trial grounds to be completely bare. The stands were empty as well, without any of the portraits, save for Rose’s stand which had a small white object placed on top of it. She stands up and walks over to it, picking up Rose’s eyepatch. She pockets it as soon as she hears someone walk in, “What do you want, Monokuma?”

“Huh? I aint Monokuma!” She hears a distinct Brooklyn accent and quickly turns around to find the person she least expected to show up, “You…? But how are you-,”

“Aww jeez! You think I’m the mastermind huh?” Harley Quinn asks and sets down a tray of food she had for her on Monokuma’s throne, “Nope! I’m not even here dummy! You can punch me if ya want to check!”

Babs doesn’t hesitate, walks over and quickly puts her in an armlock. As she does it, the person who she thought was Harley Quinn, changed to a regular, grey mannequin, and as soon as she let go, the hologram on the mannequin, or rather, robot, went back to the image of Harley Quinn, “W-what… are you…?”

“Huh? Ya still haven’t figured that out?! Why, I’m just an image projected from your conscience!” Harley smiles, “The person controlling me had a look into your past, found the least boring person they could and used them to show up here! It’s way more comforting to see a familiar face than Monokuma’s scary one, dontcha think?”

Babs shakes her head, “Not when it’s you. But then… are you trying to tell me that I’m speaking to the mastermind directly? Or the one controlling Monokuma?”

“Hmmm… why not both!” Harley replies, “Do ya have any evidence that the mastermind and Monokuma are two different people? Cos if ya do, I’d love to hear it, honest!”

Barbara ignores the Harley imitation and walks over to the food she’d left on the throne, “And I’m supposed to believe this won’t kill me?”

“Well, only if ya got a nut allergy I guess!” Harley jumps over to one of the stands and sits on it, “But seriously Barbie, you can tell me anything! I promise I won’t tell anyone else!”

Barbara shakes her head, “I wouldn’t even share anything with the real Harley Quinn, let alone you.”

“Hmpf!” Harley huffs and folds her arms, “Ya don’t gotta be rude like that! Oooh I know! Why don’t we play a little game! Ya tell me something I wanna know, and I’ll tell ya something you wanna know! Obviously, it can’t have nothin’ ta do with my real ID, but as long as it doesn’t give too much away, I’ll tell ya the truth!”

Barbara picks up the tray and takes a seat in Monokuma’s throne, “And I’m just supposed to believe that you’ll tell me the truth?”

Harley moves her finger to her chest and swipes across it, “Cross my heart! I guess ya won’t answer much either, but… I guess I gotta ask this. Why’d ya chose to pair up with Akechi? Even I didn’t see that one comin!”

Babs can’t help but smile a little, “Well, part of it was to confuse the true mastermind, so I’m glad I got that objective down. Working with him at first was… merely coincidence, even though I knew his secret, but as time went on I realised that even you wouldn’t believe anything he had to say. He is the Ultimate Liar after all, so why should you believe him? Is that a good enough answer?”

“Yup yup yup!” Harley grins widely, “Wow I’m so glad you’re part of this killing game! You’re making this all the more worthwhile! So… what’s your question?”

Barbara looked down at her food and thought it over. This was the best chance she had to uncover something about the mastermind, and yet she didn’t even know if she’d have the opportunity to share the information with anyone. Was that why they were so willing to answer her question in return for her answering theirs?

“Okay… well… I guess if you’re going to answer anything, it might be this. The mastermind, or the one controlling Monokuma, assuming they’re two different people, are either of them in this hotel?”

Harley hums, thinking over her question. That was certainly odd, it was a simple yes or no question, so what was there to think about, “Well, I can definitely tell you that I’ve never actually stepped into this hotel personally, other than right now technically! However, if you’re worried that I’ve rigged this game so that it’s impossible to figure out who I am then don’t ya worry! I’ve done all I can to make this game as exciting as possible! And what’s more exciting, more thrilling, more despair-inducing than the idea that I’ll be found out! Dontcha agree?”

“…despair-inducing?”

“Oh? Didn’t ya know?” Harley’s smile turns much darker than before as she lowers her voice, “That’s what this killing game’s all about. That’s what they’re all about. In the end, despair always wins! And as long as that is the truth… I will never give this up.”

* * *

The next day, Dick manages to wake up before the morning announcement, and once he’s had his shower he heads upstairs. He swings by the computer room to grab some sheets of paper from the printer and quickly leaves. He doesn’t want to draw too much attention to the computer room, not when he plans to investigate it that night.

On his way downstairs, he takes two steps at a time and briskly walks into the kitchen. He goes to one of the drawers which contains stationary and pulls out some glue and a few markers.

Finally, he goes to the dining hall and takes down some of the paintings. He puts glue on the back of the pages and sticks them side by side on the wall, making sure there were no gaps between them. He’s almost finished when the first guest walks in.

“Woah hold up!” Naegi exclaims and points to the paper, “what are you doing?!”

“This?” Dick points to the pages, “We’ve got no boards around and if we’re gonna brainstorm who might be controlling Monokuma, it would be good to have it somewhere everyone can see, right? Besides, ruining the walls like this isn’t exactly breaking any rules. Tina tried to blow up the front door and no one tried to stop her.”

“I mean… I guess you’re right… but you probably should’ve warned us about this.”

Dick steps away from the wall once he’s done and picks up one of the markers, “I only came up with this after the night time announcement,” He takes the lid off and tries to write down something, “That classmate of yours… what was her name again?”

“Junko Enoshima? She’s dead, Togami and I saw her die. Not to mention we even saw an AI version of her die too. There’s no way she’s behind this!”

Dick chooses to write down her name first anyway, “You might have seen her die, but there’s way too many people I know should be dead but aren’t,” he next name he writes down is ‘Slade Wilson.’

“Who’s that?”

“Rose’s illegitimate dad,” Dick informs him, “I doubt he’s behind this, but if money is involved then so is he. I wouldn’t put it past him to endanger his daughter like this just for some cash. Do you have any ideas?”

Naegi shakes his head, “Honesty, no. This might sound… odd, but I don’t think it’s anyone here.”

“You’re right, that does sound odd,” Dick admits, “But I’m guessing that assumption is based on past experience… In which case,” he begins writing down the names of everyone in the killing game, including those that have died, “If this is a repeat of one of the killing games then we shouldn’t exclude ourselves.”

“That’s… kinda pessimistic for you, isn’t it?” Naegi asks.

Dick shrugs, “Maybe so, but I want to make sure that we’re keeping our options open,” he continues writing down everyone’s names, “I’ll take them down if we all have a good enough alibi, or reason for why it can’t be us.”

The next person to walk in is Kiryuuin, teacup in hand, but she doesn’t seem particularly intrigued by what Dick is doing. However, instead of sitting down at the far end of the table, she sits directly across the table from the list Dick was writing and observes him silently.

“Anyone you’d like to add?” Dick asks without turning around.

“One person comes to mind… only Harime Nui would come up with such a ridiculous scheme to belittle me,” she picks up her tea and takes a sip before explaining, “She is the head seamstress of my mother’s corporation. However, she is also extremely childish and enjoys getting in my way.”

“You don’t think it’s your mother?” Naegi questions, remembering how she talked about her before, “She sounded pretty evil to me.”

“She’s too focused on her goal to do this. This game… it’s too elaborate for her,” Kiryuuin explains, “And pointless in the long run. If she wanted to break me, she’d find a much simpler method.”

Once Dick finishes writing down all of the guest’s names, he writes down ‘Harime Nui’ and places the lid on the marker, “And now… we wait.”

Once the morning announcement sounds, it’s not long before everyone else starts walking in. By 8:30, everyone’s already at the table, eating breakfast.

Tiny Tina glances over to Pamela, who’s reading over the list, “So if you’re a plant lady, then don’t you need sunlight or somethin’?”

“Don’t all humans need sunlight to survive?” Pamela replies back without providing an answer, and given her tone, Tina doesn’t try to repeat her question.

Once everyone’s eaten their breakfast, Dick stands up and takes the lid off his marker once again. Akechi reaches for another marker Dick left on the table and stands up with him, “As you all might have guessed now, this is a list of possible suspects. If anyone can think of anyone who would want to hurt, you or someone who’s got the money and abilities to pull this off then tell us and we’ll add them to the list.”

“Then it’s pretty obvious,” Gaige speaks up first, “it’s gotta be Handsome Jack. He’s got infinite money, resources and he’s petty enough to get back at me and Tina for all the crap we’ve pulled concerning his company, not to mention cray enough to do it like this… but it’s a little weird that he’d be hiding behind a bear instead of showing off how smart he is for trapping us here. I mean… this is a guy who willingly calls himself ‘Handsome’ Jack and wears a mask that looks exactly like his real face.”

With no objections from Tina, he adds Handsome Jack to the list as well, and as he’s writing the last letter, Ryuji speaks up.

“What about that guy you’re working for?” He asks Akechi, “I mean… you weren’t just doing it for yourself, right? Someone definitely told you to kill Okumura and Wakaba.”

Akechi shakes his head, “I don’t see how this could benefit him at all. Even if he discovered that I’m working against him, he wouldn’t pull something as elaborate as this as it leaves behind far too many clues. To top it all off, Shido is far more concerned with becoming prime minister than he would be with killing me off so elaborately.”

Despite his objection, Akechi still turns around and writes down ‘Masayoshi Shido’ bellow Jack’s name, “but I suppose if we’re considering anyone with the resources to pull this off then I would add him to the list.”

For the next couple of minutes, everyone remains silent while they try to come up with anyone else who would be capable, until suddenly, Pamela begins to chuckle, “Don’t tell me you of all people haven’t considered the Joker?”

“Joker?” Ryuji asks, “Why would he do something like this?!”

Akechi shakes his head, “I believe they are referring to someone other than Amamiya, correct?”

Dick nods, “I have actually thought about it, and sure this whole thing is so over the top that it could be him, god knows he’d somehow get the resources to do it but… this is way too thought out, too precise, it’s not something the Joker could pull off. Besides, unless he needed a good reason, I don’t think Joker would hide behind Monokuma…. But if you think it’s possible, then I’ll add him to the list too. Actually… thinking of resources… maybe Luthor could be behind this. I don’t know why he’d target all of us but he’s definitely got the money and intelligence to do this.”

He writes down the names, and when no one else suggests anymore suspects, he stands back and reads over the list one more time.

**Junko Enoshima               Slade Wilson                     Ann Takamaki**

**Monika                              Artemis Crock                  Rose Wilson**

**Dick Grayson                     Makoto Naegi                  Goro Akechi**

**Satsuki Kiryuuin               Barbara Gordon                  Tiny Tina**

**Gaige                                Ira Gamagoori                 Ryuji Sakamoto**

**Pamela Isley                    Uzu Sanageyama             Byakuya Togami**

**Harime Nui                      Handsome Jack               Masayoshi Shido**

**Joker                                   Lex Luthor**

Dick closes the lid on the marker once more and turns to everyone, “So, does anyone have any definitive proof that would rule someone out?”

“Well...” Ryuji starts off, “It can’t be Ann or Artemis, right? At least a couple of you checked their pulse and... well...”

Dick nods and looks over to Naegi, “What do you think?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time someone we thought was dead actually wasn’t, but the fake Junko Enoshima didn’t really seem like the real one from the get go,” Naegi tries to explain quickly, “I guess if you think Ann and Artemis were who they say they were, then yeah, we can rule them out.”

“What of Monika and Rose?” Kiryuuin asks, “We watched them die as well.”

“On a screen,” Togami interferes, “It’s hardly definitive proof that they’re not the culprit, or even dead for that matter.”

Dick shakes his head, “You’re right but... Monokuma insists that he has nothing to do with the murders, that it would be too boring for him to do it. He could be lying but if that were the case then why bother getting us to kill each other if he’s just going to do it himself?”

Akechi turns to the list and crosses out the four names, “And what of Gordon? She was clearly trying to help us uncover the truth behind this place.”

Gaige snorts, “Yeah, while sneaking around and only telling the Ultimate Liar about it. For all we know she got herself locked up downstairs just, so she could control Monokuma more easily, and to stop us from suspecting her in the first place.”

“Wait...” Sanageyama interrupts, “We already know someone needs to control Monokuma, right? Then... it can’t be any of us. We’ve all been in the same room as Monokuma at the same time. I think we would’ve noticed someone controlling him.”

Tiny Tina jumps out of her chair, “Oh! Oh! Oh! What if someone’s controlling Monokuma with their minds?!” She points to Pamela, “She can control plants with her mind,” she then points to Gaige, “And I’ve seen her control a robot with her mind too!”

Gaige stands up from her chair, “That’s not the same! And no, I don’t control him with my mind! I don’t have siren powers, you know!”

Akechi rolls his eyes, “For our sake, let’s assume Monokuma is being controlled remotely, then that could potentially exclude us all. However, what if Monokuma isn’t just one person?”

Togami crosses his arms, “It’s... certainly a possibility. After all, the original Ultimate Despair did consist of two sisters.”

“No! No! No! No! No! No! No!” Monokuma’s shrill voice cut through the conversation, from where he was standing at the end of the hall and everyone turned their attention to him, “Ugh, if you guys continue like this then the plot won’t move along at all!”

“Plot...?” Dick asks, but his question isn’t answered as Monokuma continues ranting.

“There can only ever be one Monokuma!” Just as the bear shouts that, another, much older looking Monokuma pops up behind him, “See! There’s only one me!”

Tiny Tina shakes her head quickly, “Wh-what?! No! You’re so stupid you can’t even count! There’s two of ya right there!”

“Huh?” Monokuma tilts his head, then turns around. The other Monokuma disappears before he can look, “No there isn’t! You’re the stupid one!”

Kiryuuin pounds her fist on the table, “Enough with the comedy skit. Answer me, bear, if there’s only one Monokuma, then does that mean that Monokuma and the owner of this hotel or the mastermind are one and the same?”

“...Like hell I’m gonna answer that! I already gave you enough clues as is and you’re not even paying attention to them!” Monokuma complains, “I’m just tired of you guys not killing anybody, so I’ve decided to motivate you again!”

“We will never kill to satisfy your insane desires!” Gamagoori shouts.

“Puhuhuhuhu! We’ll see about that,” Monokuma chuckles, “As you know, little miss Gordon is sitting downstairs all alone. But since none of you have decided to kill anyone, I’ve decided to cut off her food supply! Now, if you kill and get away with it, I promise that she’ll be sent back home with ya! But here’s the catch! If you don’t get away with it, I’ll execute Gordon too!”

“What?!” Dick shouts, “That’s not in any of your rules! And how does that even make sense for us?!”

“Well... it’s super entertaining and dramatic wouldn’t you agree? You’ve only got a limited amount of time to either save your loved one or doom her! It’s up to you to decide what you’ll do! I can’t wait to see what happens! Auf Wiedersehen!” He jumps under the table and disappears once more.

The group stops debating about the identity of Monokuma and Akechi looks over to Dick, “If you’ve got any ideas for our escape, I suggest you share them with us now.”

It was to no avail. Four dead. His girlfriend and long-time friend doomed. None of his questions answered and an investigation going nowhere.

Dick had no means of escape, no ideas, nothing.

He leaves the room without looking back.


	12. Eye for an Eye, Blood for Blood- Daily Life pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a time limit on his hands, Dick decides to take action.

The next time anyone sees Dick Grayson, it’s a few hours after their meeting in the dining hall.

Tiny Tina walks in, once again holding more fertiliser as well as many other implements to make her next bomb. Unfortunately for her, there’s already someone blocking the door, “Whatcha doing?”

Dick sits at the door, holding a pin and a screwdriver in the lock, “After this morning I stopped focusing on finding out who Monokuma is and trying to break us out of here. I’ve managed to unlock it a bunch of times already, or at least I thought I did, but when I try to open the door, it’s still somehow locked,” he turns around and sees the bag of fertiliser in Tina’s hands, “Need any help with that?”

“You know how to make badonka-donks?!” Tiny Tina smiles and drops the bag, “I gots this buuuuut… you can be my slave for the day!”

Dick’s more than a little hesitant to answer that in any positive way, “Uh... how about I just bring you what you need for your bomb and we work from there?”

He doesn’t honestly expect it to work. If it didn’t make a scratch yesterday then it won’t now, but with almost no other ways of escaping, and no better ideas, Dick helps out Tina.

While she tinkers with her bomb and he passes her some tools, he starts up a conversation, “How does a 13-year-old girl become known as the Ultimate Demolitionist?”

“Not by choice,” he hears her mutter, but when he asks for clarification, she looks at him strangely, “What do ya need me to clarify?”

“What you just said.”

“I didn’t say nothin!” Tiny Tina objects, “Stop being weird and pass me those screws will ya? Oh! And get yourself some paper and a pen.”

Dick stands up and makes his way over to the counter in the lobby. Was Tiny Tina not aware that she had given him such an ominous response? He decides not to ask her again, and shifts the topic, “Gaige told me you guys live in a pretty crappy neighbourhood… or something like that. Is it true?”

“Hmmm… nah, it’s a bit bigger than that!” She explains while he tears out a page of an empty notebook lying on the reception desk, “It’s a whole crappy planet! Pandora straight up sucks, there’s constantly bandits and psycho’s or bugs and dogs out to get ya, and there’s Handsome Jack who’s a total butt. He’s tryin’ ta mine eridium or take over the world or open a vault… or somethin’. I dunno, I stay away from him cos he’s cray cray but also got a butt-ton of Hyperion bots. Gaige’s gonna know more, she’s one of the vault hunters tryin’ ta kill him.”

“Vault hunters…?” Dick asks, but once again, he doesn’t get a reply.

“Yeah, vault hunters. But that’s not important! Write all of this super important stuff down and go get it for me!” She almost shouts at him, and he does as he’s told.

Once she gives him a list of implements and ingredients, he leaves the lobby. He hears laughter coming from the kitchen, his first destination.

Inside, he finds Gamagoori laughing along with Naegi. Gamagoori’s missing his jacket, and Naegi himself has abandoned his own jacket and tie, unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt and rolled up his sleeves to his elbows. Both are clearly tired, sweating and have the same sports drink in their hand, “What did I miss?”

“Grayson!” Gamagoori looks over to him, “We thought you’d gone missing for good! You didn’t answer your door!”

“I… wasn’t in my room,” Dick informs them, “Did no one think to check the lobby?”

“Lobby?” Naegi asks, “What were you doing there?”

“I was trying to pick the lock on the front door but… no results. Tina’s gonna try blowing up the door again,” Dick informs them.

“Huh…” Naegi thinks out loud, “You think… maybe we’re going about this the wrong way?”

“What are you talking about?! Don’t you want to find a way out?” Gamagoori asks.

“Well, yeah, of course I do!” Naegi insists, “but at the same time, I’m sure Monokuma’s thought of all the ways we could possibly leave and blocked them all off. All we’ve been doing so far is look for an easy way out or going off of the clues he clearly left lying around but has anyone tried digging deeper?”

Dick considers Naegi’s contemplation. Given how quickly the events of the past few days occurred, no one even had the chance to investigate the area deeper than they had. No one except for…

“Barbara,” he finishes his thought out loud, “Akechi mentioned she was working on something…” he mutters and glances over to one of the cameras. Hopefully Monokuma wouldn’t think to follow him _there_ , “I’ll… be right back,” he quickly leaves the room, but then comes back again, “oh right, someone should tell Tina I’ll be busy.”

Naegi looks over to Gamagoori pleadingly, “Gamagoori, you’re tough-.”

“I refuse to give her such news,” he crosses his arms and closes his eyes, “If you want to become tougher, you must face even the most dangerous situations!”

“But she’s got explosives!”

“Exactly!”

* * *

As Dick walks up the stairs, he passes by Gaige who was holding a wrench, “Don’t tell me you’re up to something as well?”

Gaige looks down at her wrench, “Oh this? I found it in the garden and called dibs on it. Maybe I’ll try making something from the computers or slot machines or somethin’. Thinking of building Deathtrap 2.0… though I guess this would be more Get-Us-All-Out-Of-Here-Trap… I’ll think of a better name later. Speaking of which, you haven’t gotten anything from those, have you? The machines and the computers I mean.”

Dick shakes his head, “Last time we tried messing with it we ended up with squat. Monokuma said there’s some information we could get if we tried them out, but you’d have to be lucky to win anything there.”

“Like… ultimately lucky?” Gaige grins, playing around with her wrench by throwing it up in the air and catching it, “If you’re an ultimate then you’ve got to be the best of the best, right? I mean, Monika was a self-aware AI, Tiny Tina’s known how to make the right explosives for the right occasion since she was like 9, you’re probably good at… flips and stuff I guess, so Naegi’s gotta have some insane luck, right?”

“Isn’t this the third time he’s trapped in a killing game?” Dick points out.

“And he’s survived till now,” Gaige points out, “Of course he’s probably just generic enough that no one’s even thought of killing him… huh maybe you’re right. It’s still worth a shot IMO.”

“I’ll ask him about it later,” Dick nods, “You know if anyone’s using the computer room?”

Gaige shakes her head, “I saw Sanageyama and Kiryuuin training in the gym, Togami’s in the conference room as always since no one goes there, Ryuji’s probably swimming or something, Tiny Tina’s making more explosives, Pamela practically lives in the garden now, I heard that Gamagoori was helping Naegi with something… as for Akechi, who knows? That guy is always sneaking around,” she yawns and stretches, “Ugh... with all of this stress of the killing game, I haven’t been able to get much sleep recently.”

Dick yawns soon after her, “I… know the feeling. Anyway, I have things to do and apparently so do you so… see you around.”

He continues to walk up the stairs. He heads into the computer room and looks around for any immediate signs of tampering. Of course, he didn’t expect Babs to leave any obvious clues lying around, but he does notice one of the computers on the desks appeared to have a part of its case unscrewed.

He takes a look at the case and carefully removes it. Inside, the motherboard was missing and instead replaced by a crumpled-up piece of paper. He removes the paper and carefully unwraps it, “Up, up, down, down…” he mutters.

_Togami walks over to Kiryuuin, “for what exact reason did you come up here by yourself?”_

_Kiryuuin glances over to her two subordinates, “Have Sanageyama and Gamagoori not explained it to you? I was searching for traps-.”_

_“Give me a break, that’s not why you were here,” Togami replies, and before she can argue back, Akechi grabs the piece of paper in her hand as he walks by._

_He unwraps the paper and reads out loud, “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, pull? What is this?”_

_“It’s the Konami code,” Barbara explains and snatches the paper from him to read it, “Almost anyway. It’s a famous cheat code,” she looks to Kiryuuin, “Where did you find this?”_

_Kiryuuin snatches the paper back from Akechi, who doesn’t fight back, “It was in a bin in one of the conference rooms. I did not want to show it to you all in an open area in case Monokuma didn’t want us to find it.”_

Knowing that the piece of paper was in Barbara’s possession, he turns it over and finds a different code, ZITKA37. He’s certain that the code was meant for him, he walks over to one of the computers that was switched on and tries out the password. When it doesn’t work on the first one, he moves onto the next. When he finds the right one, he takes a seat and looks through the files. There were only really two files, one reading ‘PROJECT_DESPAIR’ and the other reading ‘B-1-6.’ He tries to open the project despair file first, but none of the codes he found had worked. He opts for opening the other file.

Inside were two video files, one labelled ‘B-0-1.’ And another labelled ‘ORACLE_OVERRIDE_PROTOCOL_beta’. Other than that, there’s one other file type he didn’t recognise. This one was password protected and nothing Dick typed in worked. However, he decides to take note of the ORACLE_RESTORATION_PROGRAM.hpe file and moves on. He opens the one with his zeta designation instead and makes sure that the speakers aren’t on a high volume.

What comes up immediately is Barbara sitting where Dick currently was, and she starts talking.

“I suppose if you’re watching this then I’m not around to tell you in person, and you survived Artemis’ trial. I don’t know who killed her, but I know I can count on you to find out and bring her justice. But first… I want to apologise. The crime was set up to make it seem like the Black Mask was the killer, when in reality, I know it couldn’t have been him… I guess you already know that. Anyway, I’m sure you’re curious about the page I left you, and why I’ve been sneaking around.”

On the screen, Barbara pulls put the piece of paper that Dick had in his hand, “I was right, this is a cheat code. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I think it works on one of the slot machines in the casino. I don’t have the time right now to look into that, but maybe you do. What I was able to do was hack into the database of the casino. The odds were stacked against everyone there, but I’ve managed to turn it to your favour. Akechi is the only one who knows this right now, so try asking him and see if he’s gotten Monokuma’s jackpot prize.”

She crumples up the piece of paper and puts it in her pocket, “Anyway, here’s what I know. I was able to hack into the Despair project file, but I can’t let you look into it now. For one, it’s being constantly monitored, and accessing it without being noticed was difficult even for me. I’m sure Monokuma’s already dealt with me because of that. Nevertheless, it’s mostly a log of all of our actions up till now, but there’s more to it. It seems to have notes written on the sides in two different colours. The way it’s written… well, it’s led me to believe that the one controlling Monokuma, and the one who threw us into this nightmare aren’t the same person, unless they’ve got some kind of dissociative disorder or split personality…”

He hears some noise in the background, the voices of the others calling out and looking for her, “There’s one more thing I need to look into, so I can’t have anyone interrupt me yet. Dick… If I’ve hurt you in any way, then I’m sorry, but I hope this helps you all escape.”

The video switches off, and Dick’s left looking at his own reflection on the screen. He tries opening the other video file, but every time he does, the computer just claims that the video is corrupt and refuses to open.

With nothing left to do in the computer room, Dick pockets the piece of paper and makes his way to the conference room.

* * *

Dick is surprised when he not only finds Togami sitting furthest away from the door, but Akechi standing nearest to it, “What’s going on?”

Togami sighs, “not another one… I’ll tell you what I told him. I only informed Gordon of the events of the previous killing games. As a matter of fact, Akechi was in the library when I shared that information and should’ve remembered.”

Akechi scribbles down something, and when Dick looks over his shoulder out of curiosity, he notices that it’s all profanities aimed at the affluent progeny, “I didn’t ask you to repeat that. I asked if there was anything else you had told her. This is all information that could help determine what exactly she knew, therefore allowing us to escape.”

“You and she were constantly sneaking around and she had not informed you?” Togami smirks, “So then, you were merely her errand boy.”

Akechi grits his teeth, “I was _not_ her errand bo-!”

Dick puts a hand on Akechi’s shoulder, “Didn’t think dealing with two of you would be such an issue… but name calling isn’t going to get us anywhere. Akechi, I was actually going to question you about something. Babs claimed that she found a way to hack into the database of the slot machines in the casino, not the slots themselves. Would you know anything about that?”

“Hmm?” Akechi hums and pockets his notebook and pen, “Oh, yes. I have already received the so-called Ultimate Prize from those slots,” he reaches into his inner pocket for what Dick assumed was another piece of paper.

Unfortunately, what Akechi pulled out wasn’t so innocent.

The Ultimate Prize was a gun.

Dick reels back as soon as Akechi pulls the gun out of his coat, and even Togami gets out of his seat, “What the he-,!”

“Oh, I suppose in the hands of a known serial killer this may be a little disconcerting,” Akechi replies nonchalantly while looking the gun over, “It’s a German semi-automatic pistol, it’s rarely used even by detectives in Japan.”

“How do you know what it is if you haven’t even seen it before?” Dick asks, still remaining cautious around Akechi.

“Oh… well, I never said I didn’t see one, merely that it’s rare to find a detective with one,” Akechi points out. He turns it in his hand and aims the butt of the gun at Dick, “If it will make you more comfortable, you can take the gun from me. I have no need for it here.”

Well, if giving him the gun didn’t do it, that statement was certainly somewhat comforting. Then again, it did come from the Ultimate Liar, “Right…” he takes the gun from him and tries to remove the magazine, “It’s stuck.”

Akechi nods, “oh yes, I’ve already tried to take it apart in case someone else had gotten their hands on it, however it proved to be impossible. If you do not wish for someone to get hurt, I suggest you hide it.”

Dick puts the gun into his jeans waist band behind him and covers it with his jumper. At the next best opportunity, he was going to put it into his room. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen.

Gaige comes into the conference room as soon as he puts the gun away, “guys, there’s a problem.”

Akechi points to her hand, which had clearly been bandaged up, “What happened to you?”

“Huh? Oh this,” Gaige lifts up her hand, “Yeah, I cut myself like half an hour ago in the kitchen when making food. Lucky for me there were bandages and stuffs in there,” she quickly shakes her head, “wait wait wait, that’s not important right now! You guys gotta come with me to check on the other guys.”

“What’s wrong with them?” Togami asks, now making his way over to the door.

“We think they might have been poisoned.”

* * *

As soon as they make it down the stairs, Dick rushes into the dining hall where he finds Naegi passed out in one of the chairs, Gamagoori clutching his head, Ryuji holding onto his stomach and Sanageyama holding onto a chair while he attempts to make his way over to the door.

“When did this start?” Akechi asks, rushing over to Ryuji first to check his breathing and general signs of life.

“I dunno, like differently for everyone I guess,” Gaige shakes her head, “We were just eating when Ryuji said that his stomach was starting to hurt real bad, then he said it was getting worse and worse, which was when Gamagoori said that he was getting similar symptoms. Sanageyama got up to get help but he could barely move on his own feet and Naegi started muttering about how his stomach hurt, then he passed out.”

“And you?” Togami looks to her, “You were eating with them, correct? Then how did you not get poisoned?”

Gaige shrugs, “I don’t know, I don’t feel bad at all. More importantly, do you guys know what to do?”

Dick helps Sanageyama sit back down, “Get Pamela. She’s been spending so much time in that garden, she might know something.”

Gaige nods and runs out immediately.

“You don’t think it’s suspicious that neither her nor Kiryuuin seem to have gotten poisoned?” Akechi asks.

Dick shakes his head and points to the plates at the table, “Only Naegi and Gamagoori seemed to share the same meal. Sanageyama and Kiryuuin also seem to have the same thing while Ryuji and Gaige had their own meal,” he points to an empty spot which still had a plate on it, “Well, someone else ate here but they seem to be gone,” he looks around the room, “Where is Kiryuuin anyway?”

Before he can get an answer, Gaige runs in with both Pamela and Tiny Tina, the latter of which most likely only showed up due to the noise everyone was making, “I got her! Tell us, what’s their poison?!”

Pamela walks past everyone and moves Akechi out of the way to inspect Naegi first. She presses a hand to his forehead and measures his heartbeat, “Decreased heartbeat, dizziness, stomach-ache and headache… these are quite generic symptoms for a poison, but I’m quite versed in what we have in the garden. I believe they have been poisoned by ingesting oleander.”

Kiryuuin is the last to arrive with two buckets in each hand. She gives one to each of the poisoned individuals, and gets Akechi to hold the one for Ryuji, “What’s the cure?”

Pamela shakes her head, “Activated charcoal would make them feel better, however I do not think there is any around,” she stands up straight and takes a couple of steps back, “If they’re already showing signs of poisoning, purging them may not be very effective, though you are welcome to try if you making sure they don’t choke on it.”

“Woah woah woah! They’re gonna die?!” Tiny Tina asks, “but isn’t that super against the rules?!”

“That’s your concern?” Akechi raises an eyebrow, “Although… you are making a good point. Why has Monokuma not intervened? One blackened may only kill two people in one killing game after all.”

“Who cares about such trivialities?!” Kiryuuin shouts, “We must help them in whatever way we can!”

Pamela’s chuckling causes the panic in the room to cease. She shakes her head, “As entertaining as this is, I must inform you, oleander is unlikely to kill them. I didn’t notice that there was oleander missing in the garden, so a very small dosage must have been used. Given that they are not children… we must simply wait until the poison is out of their systems, although it may be a painful process for them.”

“So then, will vomiting help them or not?!” Gaige asks, “Your statements are super contradictory!”

She starts to leave the room, “As I have said, it is unlikely to help. But I’m not a doctor, not of the medical kind. If they die, I refuse to take any blame because you all mistook botany for medical practice.”

* * *

It’s nighttime again once the rest of the group carry their poisoned friends back to their rooms, aiding them in any way possible. After much debating, they decide to lock the victim’s doors in case another attempt on their lives was made and everyone makes their way back to their rooms.

Dick sighs once he closes his own door and leans his forehead to it.

Why was he trapped here of all places? Why these people in particular? Why did he feel like the last trial and this one felt targeted at him? Monokuma couldn’t have known Rose would kill Artemis, right? Or that Barbara would hack into the camera?

No. He must’ve had another motive prepared, and yet he had no idea whether the alternative would have been directed at him or at someone else.

Dick leans away and shakes his head. He was being selfish. Barbara was trapped downstairs and he could only think about how Monokuma was targeting him. Maybe everyone else felt that way too.

He reaches into his jeans waistband and pulls out the gun Akechi gave him. He shakes his head once more.

There was a way to end this, everything. But murder certainly wasn’t one of them.

* * *

It was amazing how saving the others gave them enough hope to get everyone to get along, even if Akechi kept insisting that it was all for the sake of appearance. If someone did make a murder attempt, then everyone would try their best not to look suspicious, according to him anyway.

Dick was inclined to believe in some of it, as for the next couple of days he’d never seen everyone get along so well. In the mornings, Pamela even offered to make plain toast and tea for the victims. It wasn’t so much the act of kindness that confused him, but rather her choice of meal for them. If anyone would have something against tea, it would be the woman who was able to communicate with plants and feel their pain.

“I cannot undo what has been done here,” she gave as an explanation, “For the time being, my chances of survival are much higher if there are more people to target.”

“And you won’t kill?” Dick raises an eyebrow, “That would be a first.”

“It isn’t a matter of morality, it’s a matter of circumstance and the opportunity to hide your crime. What good will it do to kill someone if someone else will uncover the truth?”

Tina would run between the kitchen and the victim’s rooms, providing water to every one of them while Kiryuuin would tend to everyone else more directly.

Akechi, Gaige and Dick had even offered to make everyone meals for the following days, each of them insisting to keep an eye out for each other. Togami offered very little service, but he did occasionally help with washing the dishes and carrying the plates over to the others.

The only thing Dick found surprising is that Monokuma didn’t once think to disturb the peace that had suddenly ensued, and that feeling was making Dick more and more anxious.

He hands the plates of food over to Togami, still deep in thought, “Those are for Naegi and Ryuji, since they still aren’t feeling great I figured it would be better to cut up their food a little finer.”

Gaige picks up the other two plates, while Akechi goes for another two, “Perhaps you should take those to Gamagoori and Sanageyama. They are supposedly feeling better, but it would be unfortunate if they were to choke now. I’ll see you all in the dining hall,” Akechi leaves first, followed by Togami and Gaige.

Dick takes the rest of the plates over to the dining hall and waits there for the usually quite lunch they all shared. When everyone’s there, he takes out the piece of paper he had from Babs, “So… since things are looking much better for the others, I wanted to bring this up. It’s something Barbara wrote, and I think it’ll help us determine Monokuma’s identity.”

“Oh?” Akechi looks up as if he didn’t know what the piece of paper was about, “Should we really be doing this where he might see us?”

Dick looks up to the camera, “Well… he hasn’t shown up for a while, so can we really say that he’s here?”

“Of course I’m here!” Monokuma jumps out from the table, which was exactly what Dick had hoped wouldn’t happen, “I would never abandon you guys!”

“You did when you were looking for our second motive,” Pamela mumbles and takes a sip of water.

“Whaaaaat? I would never do such a thing!” Monokuma argues, “Anyway, I’m only here to explain myself! You see, I would never interfere in the killing game! That includes healing someone who was poisoned and stopping your investigation process into me!”

“Then what about Barbara? Wasn’t she just investigating you?” Dick asks, his tone of voice being much angrier than expected.

“Hmmm… well the investigation into just how far she took it is still ongoing, but I’ll keep ya updated” Monokuma reassures him, then mumbles, “If there’s even a reason to free her.”

“Monokuma, I have a question,” Kiryuuin says, “If you won’t heal them, then that means they have indeed been poisoned. In that case, what would you have done if all four of them had died?”

“It would have broken one of your rules, correct?” Togami adds on.

“Yup! Buuuuuut…. I only would’a killed off the blackened if more than two of them would have died! But since that hasn’t happened yet, you should all rest easy! What you do with the culprit in this case is entirely up to you. But remember, if you kill them then you become the blackened!” Monokuma jumps back under the table.

As soon as the bear is gone, Dick wants to talk about investigating the one who attempted to poison them, but before he gets the chance, Naegi walks into the room.

“Yaaaaaay!” Tiny Tina throws her hands into the air, “No class trial!!!”

Akechi shakes his head, “We’re not quite out of the woods yet,” He gets out of his seat, “We must still wait and see if the others will recover.”

“And where are you going?” Pamela asks, “You’re still the most suspicious person here.”

“Are you quite certain of that?” Akechi smirks, “Is your alter ego not _Poison_ Ivy? Besides, now that it seems that the others are getting better, this act of getting along is meaningless.” He leaves the room, passing by Naegi, who goes to sit down near Dick.

“Do I want to know if I missed out on anything?”

Dick shakes his head, “Probably not, no.”

* * *

Dick decides to skip out on dinner, and instead locks himself in his own room. He finds a notepad and writes down everything he knew so far; what Barbara had said in the video, the list of suspects, how Monokuma was behaving and the deaths and motives that had so far taken place.

He considers tearing the page out and starting a new one to determine who had poisoned the other when the most dreadful of all of the bells chime from the monitor.

**_*Ding dong, ding dong*_ **

“A body has been discovered! After some time has passed, which you can use however you wish, a class trial will begin!”

Dick jumps out from his bed, but before he leaves the room, a second chime goes off, and the monitor switches on again.

**_*Ding dong, ding dong*_ **

“A body has been discovered! After some time has passed, which you can use however you wish, a class trial will begin!”

Two announcements? Dick pales when he realises what that implies. He runs out of the room, but it doesn’t take long for him to find the crime scene. Across the hall, where he knew Gamagoori’s room was located stood Pamela, Tiny Tina and Kiryuuin, while the doors to Sanageyama’s and Ryuji’s rooms were open.

Ryuji stick his head out of the door, “Who is it?!”

Pamela quickly replies as Akechi, Gaige, Naegi and Togami run into the hall, “Gamagoori and Sanageyama have both been murdered.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! So maybe writing this at a low point in my life was a terrible idea but now that everythings normal again and I'm fighting off a cold and have some time I've gotten back to this! Thank you all for sticking around!
> 
> One more thing I may need to clear up- in terms of Danganronpa, this story takes place after the events of the Hope's Peak story arc (including Another Episode and DR3) and despite using some conventions from New Semester of Killing, it doesn't include anything from that story arc.


	13. Eye for an Eye, Blood for Blood- Deadly Life

“Whoever did this… will pay with their life. SHOW YOURSELF YOU PIG IN HUMAN CLOTHING!” Kiryuuin shouts at the rest of the guests, but no one steps forward, “Hide all you want, coward. Ira Gamagoori and Uzu Sanageyama will be avenged. Mark my words!” 

Akechi, heartless as ever, pulls out his notebook, “Yes, well, since we are all here, I’d like to start the investigation by hearing how you all found the body. My apologies, _bodies_ _.”_  

“You asking that like you know nothing about it,” Ryuji points out, still not looking away from Gamagoori’s pale body. 

Akechi simply sighs, “Unfortunately, I know nothing about this crime as for the first time I have nothing to do with this case. Therefore, I don’t know as much about the crime as I would like to. Yet.” 

Before anyone can once again tie Akechi up somewhere, Dick intervenes, “I’ll keep a close eye on him during the investigation but… I’m sorry to say, Kiryuuin, but I don’t think you should be involved with the investigation. This is clearly hitting way too close to home, and given how both of the victims are connected to you…” he trails off. 

Kiryuuin looks like she’s about to object, but ultimately, she resigns, “Very well, in that case I’m sure none of you would have anything against me standing guard.” 

“That still leaves Sanageyama’s body unguarded,” Togami points out, “And as Grayson said, I’m not sure we can trust you with this.” 

“I didn’t say _that_ …” Dick argues, “and I hate to agree with Togami-“ 

“Hey, I’ve been standing guard this whole time!” Tina informs them, “I’ll keep an eye on Lady S for ya!” 

Gaige also steps forward, “I haven’t exactly been suuuper useful during the last two investigations, so I’ll watch over Sanageyama.” 

Pamela sighs, “I suppose at the end of the day we’ll all be called upon for the class trial. Then I’ll remain with the engineer and keep her and the sack of meat company.” 

“Wow,” Akechi replies, almost shocked, “Even by my standards, that was quite… eloquent,” he says sarcastically. 

Kiryuuin however remains silent, still watching over Gamagoori. 

“Nevertheless, the first three to discover the bodies have yet to give me a reply,” Akechi asks again, but once more he doesn’t receive an answer as Monokuma swings by Gamagoori’s room. 

“Did someone say… murder?!” Monokuma jumps up happily, “Hoo boy! Finally, some excitement!” 

“Akechi did, and that was like 20 minutes ago,” Naegi replies, clenching his fist, “Just give us the Monokuma File and get out of here!” He points to the door.

Monokuma gasps, “So rude! And I had so much important stuff to say… oh well, guess now ya won’t hear it!” He throws the tablet at Naegi, who doesn’t catch it at first but manages to recover and grabs it just before it hits the floor, “Careful! I only got the one, so if ya break it, you won’t get another one! Au revoir!” He disappears again, and Naegi opens up the file. 

“’The victims of this case are Ira Gamagoori and Uzu Sanageyama. Each victim was found in his bed, one after the other. The cause of death in both cases is poisoning. Before dying, the victims had experienced intestinal issues, numbness in the limbs, confusion, headaches and breathing complications’,” Naegi looks up once he stops reading, “that’s all there is.” 

“For real?! The hell are we supposed to do with that?!” Ryuji shouts, “That file didn’t give us shit! We knew all of that already!” 

Togami shakes his head, “No, the file gave us plenty.” 

“There ain’t even a time of death!” 

Akechi starts writing up his own notes, “Hm, perhaps there is more we can induce from it. However, I would like to leave that till the class trial. What are your thoughts?” He looks over to Dick. 

While a discussion ensues, Pamela and Gaige leave the room and stand guard by Sanageyama’s room. Meanwhile, Togami begins his own investigation. With nothing better to do, Naegi also leaves the room to investigate elsewhere. 

“Mine?” Dick asks, “Dismissing any piece of evidence in any case, however small, is a bad idea. So yeah, we’ll leave it for now and talk about it during the trial,” he agrees, and looks to Tiny Tina, not entirely certain if he should ask Kiryuuin about the bodies being discovered, or to leave her be, “You were one of the three people who discovered the body, right? So, could you tell us what happened?” 

Tiny Tina hums, trying to recall the events, “Weeeeell, I was in the kitchen looking for supplies and stuffs while Kiryuuin had asked Pamela to help her with tea time! Lady S thought it was super duper weird that Gama-boring and Sanaswordguy hadn’t left their rooms yet, and I got curious, so I followed! We went to Swordguy’s room first which was when we heard the announcement go off. Soooo, she ran over here, and we followed, which was when the second one went off!” 

Dick quickly guesses that when Tina spoke of supplies, she meant the next bomb she was making. 

Akechi interrupts his thought process, “I suppose since we have not been given a time of death, it is key to solving the crime. First, we must determine what exactly had killed them, and after that, we must determine when the poison could have been administered.” 

Dick agrees with the younger detective, “Yeah. I get the feeling that we won’t actually find any clues here. A lot of us had been coming and going between the rooms of all of the sick, so finding anything belonging to us might just end up being a red herring,” Dick explains, and Akechi notes down his statement, “Which means right now, our best bet is Pamela.” 

“Ah yes, our botanist who also despises every single one of us,” Akechi sighs, “I shall leave you to deal with her. Meanwhile I will investigate Gamagoori’s body,” he looks over to Kiryuuin and Tiny Tina, “I ensure you that with their watchful eyes I will not misbehave.” 

Dick has a hard time believing anything Akechi was saying, but with how their numbers were increasing rapidly and their time was running out, Dick has no choice but to leave Akechi to do his own investigation. There was some comfort in knowing that of all people, Kiryuuin would never allow him to destroy or hide any evidence. 

Despite the door being open, Dick still knocks on Sanageyama’s door before walking in, “I’m sure you already know this, but I’d like to ask both of you some questions.” 

Pamela steps away from Sanageyama’s body, with Gaige observing her. Dick guesses what she had already been doing before he gets an answer. 

“If you must know, I was trying to determine what exactly was used to kill both Sanageyama and Gamagoori. Given what we have in the garden and the information provided by the Monokuma file, I can guess that wolfsbane was used to kill these two.” 

“Wolfsbane?” Dick asks, “But… didn’t the culprit use oleander before? Didn’t you say that a stronger dosage could kill someone?” 

Pamela nods, “Yes, and I stand by my deduction. However, there is one thing you may find interesting. This afternoon, there was no oleander left in the garden. I have no idea what the status of the wolfsbane is, though you may want to check the garden for that.” 

Dick takes a mental note of it, and decides to get Akechi to write down those details later, “Anything else I should keep in mind?” 

Pamela looks over to Sanageyama’s body and smirks, “As a detective, I’m certain you’ve already come to this conclusion, and perhaps I am digging my own grave by saying this, however, it appears that the only one in this hotel with extensive knowledge of all of the poisons here is myself. Which of course makes me the prime suspect.” 

Dick raises an eyebrow, since it would be entirely in character for her to admit to murder. But... was that what was really going on here? 

“Out of all of us, you did spend the most time in the garden. Actually… do you know if there even is a time that someone could have gone in and gotten the oleander the first time round?” 

Pamela doesn’t reply for a few seconds while she attempts to recall the events prior to Gaige running around telling people that four of them were poisoned, “The garden is locked at night, it’s an automatic process and so there is no way to enter or leave it if you are trapped inside. Of course, you are not allowed to sleep in there. I spent most of the day in the garden when everyone was initially poisoned, however I did have to occasionally leave it to get food which Ryuji has promised to make me every day so that I wouldn’t waste any time outside of the garden. I suspect the culprit used that opportunity to sneak into the garden without me noticing.” 

Dick hears Akechi entering the room, scribbling everything down, but instead of focussing on him, he keeps asking Pamela questions, “I think I just have one more question for you. Since we don’t have a time of death, I figured you might be able to maybe narrow that down for us. How long does wolfsbane take to poison someone?” 

“As always, it depends on the amount they ingested. I suppose that since the last people who saw them alive were Gaige and Togami. It would have to be a minimum of two hours after that. Wolfsbane as a poison works quite fast, so I suspect that if they were alive at lunch time, then they were most likely poisoned then.” 

Dick and Akechi both turn their attention to Gaige, who immediately looks down at the floor, “I know, I look pretty suspicious since I gave these two their food, huh? Well, yeah, I was supposed to see them around 13:30 this afternoon.” 

“Supposed to?” Akechi catches on, and Gaige confirms with a nod. 

“Yeah, but at the last second, Togami decided to switch out our plates and told me to go give food to Naegi and Ryuji while he gave the other two their food… If you don’t believe me, just ask Kiryuuin. She was there after all.” 

“We’ll definitely ask her about it, thanks,” Dick nods, and the two leave the room. Once they’re out of earshot, Dick leans over to read Akechi’s notes, “There’s two places we should definitely check out.” 

“Three,” Akechi corrects him, “The kitchen, garden and the library. There is a book of poisons in there, I’d like to see if it has been moved at all since we arrived,” he informs, “And of course, we must now interrogate Kiryuuin, Togami, Naegi and Sakamoto. Perhaps one of the latter two may have an idea about how they were initially poisoned. Normally I would offer that we split up, however… I know how suspicious you all are when it comes to me.” 

Dick rolls his eyes, “I’ll check the kitchen and library since they’re both on the first floor. You talk to Kiryuuin, Sakamoto and Naegi if they’re down here, at least then they’ll be keeping an eye on you. I’ll come get you once I’m done and we’ll look for Togami and search he garden together.” 

“Oh wonderful, now you’re even phrasing things as if you’re my babysitter,” Akechi says, a little anger spilling out into his tone of voice, “Very well, if it makes the investigation easier I will follow your lead.” 

Dick enters the kitchen, and first goes to the pile of dishes in the sink. They hadn’t been particularly bothered by keeping the place tidy, especially since it seemed that the kitchen had been cleaned every three days. Dick makes a mental note to pass that information to Akechi. 

The first thing he finds is the plates from that days lunch. He takes a clean rag and places it over his hand before taking out the plates and laying them out across the counters. Unfortunately, it seemed that even the small amount of water spilled over the plates was enough to clean off any remaining food and possible evidence. He looks into the sink once more and other than cutlery, some glasses and a couple of mugs, he also finds a glass bottle inside. Naegi walks in on him pulling it out of the sink, “What do you have there?” 

“This?” Dick lifts out the bottle. The only thing left remaining in it was a viscous, yellow liquid, “I’m not sure. I haven’t seen a bottle like this in the kitchen yet… I’m not sure what it is yet but I have a theory,” he looks to a cupboard near Naegi, “Could you pass me a plate?” 

Naegi does as instructed and reaches for a plate. Dick pours out the few remaining contents of the bottle onto the plate. He then puts the rag on the side, picks up a glass and fills it with water from the sink. He then carefully pours a few drops onto the liquid on the plate, and a small hole for the water appears on it, “It’s oil.” 

“Oil?” Naegi repeats, “but… that doesn’t look like any of the bottles of the cooking oil we have here,” he points to the bottle that Dick had used before, “Where’d it come from?” 

Dick shakes his head, “Other than the sink? No idea, but it’s definitely suspicious,” he stands up straight, “I have a question for you actually. You were one of the four that were posioned, do you know when that could have happened? Maybe you guys shared a meal or a drink?” 

Naegi puts a finger on his chin and taps it while trying to recall the events of the previous three days, “Well, with most of you guys being so sporty and all, it motivated me to do something too, so I asked Sanageyama and Gamagoori to train me. We usually brought the same sports drink with us so we started labelling our bottles, but we still got them confused sometimes. That’s the only time I can think of.” 

“And Ryuji?” 

“Ryuji? Oh, he was never there actually… guess that couldn’t have been when we got poisoned then,” Naegi concludes, “Sorry, there’s nothing else I can think of that any of us did in common.” 

* * *

Akechi pokes his head into the dining hall and finds Ryuji looking under the carpet for clues, “I’m fairly certain you will not find anything there.” 

“What would you know?” Ryuji stands up, snapping at him, “Not like you’re a real detective.” 

Akechi rolls his eyes, “While I did use the metaverse to help me in some cases, it does not mean that I didn’t use my observation skills to get to where I am now. Do you truly believe that I would let myself go on TV if I wasn’t convinced that I could show off my skills?” 

“Or at least bullshit your way through them,” Ryuji mumbles. 

“Well, bullshit only gets you so far,” Akechi answers back, “I’m sick of this little game, Sakamoto. In truth, I’m only here to ask you about the previous three days.” 

Ryuji considers just not giving him an answer, but at the end of the day, both of their lives were on the line, “Fine. You wanna know when I could’ve gotten poisoned? Honestly, I don’t know. The only meals I shared were with Pamela, and that day I only ate some chicken I cooked for the two of us. Anyway, what were you doing?” 

“Oh?” Akechi looks up from the notebook he was writing in, “It may come as a surprise to you, but I was helping Kiryuuin, Pamela and the others in feeding you and keeping you alive.” 

“Didn’t exactly do a great job did you?” Ryuji bites again, but this time he rubs the back of his neck and his face shows regret, “No, I’m sorry, that was uncalled for. It’s Monokuma’s fault anyway, he shoulda cured us.” 

“Hmm?” Akechi realises what he had said, “No… he couldn’t have. According to his own rule, he is unwilling to cure someone if they were poisoned by one of the guests…” he quickly scribbles it down, “That was surprisingly helpful, Sakamoto, thank you.” 

* * *

Dick leaves the library and almost bumps into Akechi on the way out, “How’d it go?” 

“Well, I wasn’t able to get much information out of Kiryuuin and I was unable to locate Togami. I will show you what information I was able to obtain from Sakamoto. How about your investigation?” He glances down at Dick’s hand which was holding some small package, “Is that evidence?” 

Dick shakes his head and shows him the packed food, “It’s for Babs. Monokuma’s been starving her down there and I’m not sure just how much he’ll stick to his promising of ending that with a murder. As for what I found, I’ll let you know on the way up to the garden.” 

Dick sticks the package into his pocket and walks up the stairs with Akechi while recalling the events that had transpired in the kitchen. He times it perfectly as the moment they get to the door’s of the garden, he finished his explanation. He pulls on the door but it doesn’t open, “Huh? I thought it would be open now.” 

“Ah yes, unlike the rest of the doors in this building, the garden doors open in, not out. I suppose you wouldn’t know that if you haven’t been here before,” Akechi points out. 

“And how do you of all people know that?” Dick raises an eyebrow, pushing the door open, “I don’t remember Pamela telling us that.” 

“She didn’t,” Akechi confirms, “I have been here once before, but I would much rather explain myself at the class trial than now in front of just one person…” he looks into the garden, “or two. Togami, care to explain what you are doing?” 

They find Togami holding a plant covered in dirt by some kind of rag, as far away from him as possible, “I recall that touching an oleander plant by certain parts may result in a rash, and so I would like to avoid being seen as a suspect merely because I discovered the plant buried under some dirt.” 

“Buried?” Dick looks around for any signs of the other plant. While in the library, he had found the book of poisons which depicted both the oleander and the wolfsbane. However as far as he could tell, it had not been moved. He quickly finds it, close to the door, “Well, at least we know the wolfsbane is here. But why’d the culprit bother hiding the oleander?” 

Togami drops it back onto the ground, “they didn’t do a very good job of it. It didn’t take me very long to find it.” 

“Perhaps they did not have time to bury it,” Akechi suggests, “Ah yes, Togami, we have some questions for you. Why did you switch plates with Gaige this afternoon?” 

“Simple, I didn’t wish to interact with Sakamoto. He is… quite irritating,” Togami throws down the rag as well and swipes some dirt that had gotten onto his trousers, “Since the plates were all intended for specific individuals, I asked Gaige if she could take my plates to Naegi and Sakamoto, and if I could take hers to Gamagoori and Sanageyama.” 

Dick raises an eyebrow, “That seems… like pretty weak reasoning to me,” nevertheless, he sees Akechi write it down, “Anything else you’d like to tell us?” 

“Yes,” He stops swiping the dirt off of himself, “Why do you think Naegi is still alive?” 

“Are you saying you didn’t target him?” Akechi smirks, but Togami ignores him entirely and speaks to Dick. 

“Do you recall what his talent is?” 

“Ultimate Lucky Student,” Dick answers quickly, “You don’t actually think that’s a clue, do you? I mean… luck isn’t going to save you from murder, is it?” 

Togami shrugs, “Think of it what you will. However, at least two people must have survived the initial poisoning, correct? Therefore, Naegi is certainly lucky that he was one of them.” 

“Why’d you say that?” Dick asks, clearly confused but Akechi quickly explains by showing him Monokuma’s rule on his e-handbook. 

“No one blackened can kill two guests. I suppose Monokuma would immediately punish them if three or more people would have died. I believe that is what Togami is implying.” 

 ***Ding dong,** **bing** **bong***  

Monokuma once again appears on every monitor of the hotel, “Okaaaay well this is starting to get boring so please make your way down to the red door in the lobby! See ya there!” 

* * *

Dick, Akechi and Togami are the last few to make it down to the lobby, and everyone stands around in silence. Unlike the first trial, the room looks almost empty, and despite not wanting to think that the game would continue, Dick knew the group would only get smaller and smaller. 

Unlike the first two trials, this trial was different. In the last trials, Dick knew that in the end, he was sentencing another killer to death. He would never, could never do it in the real world, but this wasn’t the real world. This killing game didn’t even resemble the real world. 

Instead, today he would have to choose. Uncover the truth behind the murders of two of the hotel guests and sentence not only the killer, but his own girlfriend to certain death, or choose the wrong culprit and sentence everyone else. 

The doors of the elevator slowly open and Dick watches everyone slowly move in. He feels a hand on his shoulder. 

“Look man, whatever happens in there…” Ryuji looks away from him, “I… none of us are gonna blame you for whatever choices you make, alright?” 

Dick clenches his fist, “no… I have to do what’s right,” he looks over to the group. Among them was Kiryuuin, clutching the bamboo sword Sanageyama always carried with him by her side, “After all, one of us killed two of our friends. I can’t leave that be… I know what Barbara would want. I… I have to make sure this trial comes to the right conclusion.” 

* * *

 **Monokuma File #3**  

The victims of this case are Ira Gamagoori and Uzu Sanageyama. Each victim was found in his bed, one after the other. The cause of death in both cases is poisoning. Before dying, the victims had experience intestinal issues, numbness in the limbs, confusion, headaches and breathing complications. 

No time of death was given, perhaps intentionally. 

UPDATE: The deaths must have taken place between 15:30 and 18:00. According to Pamela, the victims must have been poisoned at lunch time. 

 **Discovery of the Bodies**  

According to Tiny Tina, she had followed Kiryuuin and Pamela to Sanageyama’s and Gamagoori’s rooms before they had discovered the body. 

 **Poisoned** **Vi** **ctims**  

Ryuji, Naegi, Sanageyama and Gamagoori had all been previously poisoned. According to Pamela, they had been poisoned with oleander. 

 **Initial Symptoms**  

The victims experienced nausea, intense stomach pains, dizziness, intense headaches, fever, confusion and numbness. 

 **Tending to the Victims**  

The last few days, everyone but Naegi and Ryuji had been going in and out of both crime scenes while tending to Sanageyama and Gamagoori. 

 **Wolfsbane**  

The poison used to kill the victims had derived from wolfsbane, found in the garden. 

 **Missing Oleander**  

There was no oleander, the first poison used, found in the garden or anywhere else in the hotel. 

UPDATE: The oleander was found buried in the garden. 

 **Garden Closures**  

The garden is closed during nighttime, however there is no rule that doesn’t allow someone to stay awake in it overnight. 

 **Pamela’s Account**  

Pamela usually spent her time in the garden, but she occasionally left to go eat. She often asked Sakamoto to cook some extra food for her so she wouldn’t waste any time outside of the garden. 

 **Switched Plates**  

When serving the victims their lunch, Togami had asked Gaige to switch plates. 

 **Bottle of Oil**  

A bottle with oil inside was found in the sink. Unlike the regular bottles of cooking oil, this one had a different shape and size. 

 **Book of Poisons**  

The book of poisons in the library remained untouched since the guests first discovered it. 

 **Naegi’** **s Account**  

Naegi had been training with Gamagoori and Sanageyama since the second trial ended, and often they mixed up their own sports drinks. Despite labelling them, they still would mix up their bottles. 

 **Sakamoto’s Account**  

Sakamoto had only shared meals with Pamela, but none of the other victims. 

 **Monokuma’s Cure**  

Monokuma claimed previously that if someone were to become deathly ill, he would cure them unless it the illness was brought about by one of the guests. 

 **Garden Doors**  

Unlike the rest of the doors in the building, the doors of the garden open inwards, not outwards. Anyone who had entered the garden before would know that. 

 **Rash**  

Togami had heard somewhere that touching certain parts of oleander would give someone a rash. 

 **Togami’s Account**  

According to Togami, he switched plates with Gaige as he did not want to interact with Ryuji. 

 **Ultimate Lucky Student**  

Togami claims that Naegi’s talent as the Ultimate Lucky Student is real. He also believes it to be a vital piece of evidence. 

 **Monokuma’s Rule**  

According to Monokuma, no blackened can kill more than two people in a single killing game. 


	14. Eye for an Eye, Blood for Blood- Class Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time, it's up to Barbara to find the killer. Will she condemn the group, or herself and the blackened?

Dick is the first to get out of the lift and he finds Barbara already waiting at her own stand. The room remained the same as it had before, with the usual exceptions of the different wallpapers, now resembling the walls of a dojo, and the ever-increasing number of portraits. Rose’s, Sanageyama’s and Gamagoori’s were among the black and white portraits placed at the stands, each with an x over their faces written in blood. However, unlike Gamagoori’s and Sanageyama’s which was simply painted on, Rose’s looked more like two katana’s crossing each other. 

He strides over to the other side of the courtroom and immediately pulls out the package of cookies he had brought with him, “I’m sorry it’s nothing bigger, I don’t know how much I could have smuggled in.” 

Barbara shakes her head and takes the package from him, “It’s fine. Monokuma actually kept to his word and gave me some noodles and water before. It’s nothing much, actually its not really enough but it’ll have to do,” she opens up the packet and eats the first cookie in one bite. She extends her hand towards Dick, “Akechi’s notebook. He gave it to you, right?” 

Dick nods and quickly pulls it out from his back pocket, “Yeah he did bu-,” 

“I know Monokuma added a separate rule to this class trial,” Babs informs him, “I have no idea what went on upstairs. I can remain impartial… To an extent.. I… I can’t ask you to lead the class trial knowing that one of us will die.” 

Dick hesitates, but nevertheless, he sighs and hands her the journal, “Fine… but I have a question. Did you figure it out? Did you figure out who Monokuma is?” 

She shakes her head, “If I did, we wouldn’t even have this class trial. What I do know is-,” 

“Okay! Sharing Time is over kids!” Monokuma appears on his throne, “Now get to your stands and let the class trial begin!” 

 **CLASS TRIAL IN SESSION**  

 **ALL RISE**  

“Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! So, your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit’ then only they will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one… Then I’ll punish everyone _besides_ the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will be able to check out of the hotel!” 

“There is no need for an execution, Monokuma,” Kiryuuin starts off, “Because I will slaughter whoever killed them myself!” 

Pamela rolls her eyes and folds her arms, “Oh yeah great way to start a trial, just threaten the killer already, I’m sure that will keep us all calm and focused.” 

Gaige shrugs, “Sure but at the same time, isn’t it kinda obvious who did it? I mean, they got poisoned and aren’t you the one who calls herself ‘Poison Ivy’?” 

“Don’t you think that would be way too obvious?” Pamela tries to defend herself.

Togami smirks, “You should know that it’s a very weak rebuttal. Don’t you have anything else? After all we know you’re the one who spends the most time in the garden. Not to mention you were quite quick to help our first four victims. You could have poisoned the other two at any given moment.” 

Dick shakes his head, “No I’m pretty sure Pamela didn’t do it. Sure, the circumstances look suspicious but don’t you think she did a pretty sloppy job if she had tried to poison someone?” 

“She could’a done it though,” Ryuji agrees with Togami, “All she had to do was go to the garden, grab some poisonous plant and chuck it into our food. Since she’s the ultimate botanist, she wouldn’t have a problem choosing some plant that would kill us.” 

“No that’s wrong!” Barbara flips through Akechi’s notebook, “According to Akechi’s notes, there were four people poisoned in total, right? But it wasn’t deadly. Pamela would have known that the oleander wouldn’t be enough.” 

Akechi quickly interjects, “Are you trying to say that the killer didn’t know what they were doing?” 

“Huh? Well, I guess yeah I am,” Babs agrees, “Why, do you have a rebuttal?” 

Akechi smirks, “Of course I have a rebuttal. The crime was thought out before. And here’s my reasoning.” 

* * *

 **REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN**  

“You say that the killer didn’t know what they were doing, correct?” Akechi asks, “however, they must have known they were going to poison their victim. They went to the garden and picked a plant, which they used on the victims. They could have used two plants to confuse us and have us focus on curing the victims instead of searching for a culprit.” 

Part of Akechi’s reasoning did make sense but…

 **ADVANCE**  

Akechi continues, “Since she was taking care of them and supposedly looking for a cure, Pamela could have killed all four of them and no one would know, thus limiting the number of investigators.” 

“That can’t possibly be it!” Babs refutes, “One of Monokuma’s rules says so! If Pamela had tried to kill more than two people, Monokuma would have stopped her!” 

 **BREAK**

* * *

“But you already knew that,” Dick points out, looking to Akechi, “I told you about that rule myself and you wrote it down for me.” 

Akechi smirks, “Oh, yes, I did. I just wanted someone to clear it up for those of us here who didn’t know.” 

“Ugh!” Ryuji groans, “Can we just not let him talk? Please? Seriously, he’s just being obnoxious and getting in the way now.” 

“I agree!” Tiny Tina nods quickly, “Let’s give Akechi a time out! But waitwaitwaitwaitwait… if ya can’t kill more than two people, why were four poisoned? I mean… that’s still true and Monokuma did nothing ‘bout it.” 

Kiryuuin nods, “Yes, I would also like to know why and how Sanageyama, Gamagoori, Sakamoto and Naegi were all poisoned.” 

Naegi agrees, “I think for that, we should probably go back to the first poisoning and figure out how the culprit did that. Monokuma definitely won’t tell us why he didn’t stop the killer anyway.” 

Everyone glances over to the bear, who remains silent. 

Kiryuuin closes her eyes and nods, “Very well, let us discuss then how you were poisoned.” 

Gaige starts the discussion, “So, you guys all started feeling like crap three days ago or something like that, right?” 

Ryuji nods, “Yeah, so we must’ve gotten poisoned first some time around then.” 

“Is there any time you guys got a meal or a drink from one of us?” Dick asks Naegi and Ryuji. 

Naegi shakes his head, “I shared a drink with Sanageyama and Gamagoori, but I don’t think it was then cos Ryuji wasn’t there.” 

Babs rubs her temple, reading over the notes. There wasn’t any time that any of them shared a meal, right? Except for… 

“Wait that’s wrong!” Babs glances back to Pamela, “You and Ryuji shared some kind of meal, right?” 

Pamela huffs, “Are you insinuating I poisoned them again? But… yes, we did.” 

“Then… I don’t think Ryuji was poisoned, not by the killer,” Babs shakes her head, “I think he must have just gotten a really bad case of food poisoning.” 

“What?! For real?!” Ryuji grabs onto his stand, “But… that doesn’t make sense. If I got food poisoning, why didn’t I just get some medicine?” 

Babs glances down at her notes, “This must be it…” she mutters and looks up, “Monokuma’s cure, he’ll only heal you if your sickness wasn’t caused by someone else. But if it’s something like under-cooked meat then I think that still falls under Monokuma’s twisted version of ‘homicide’. If you’d have died, whoever cooked the meal would have become the blackened. Is that right, Monokuma?” 

“Yup yup yup!” Monokuma laughs, “Of course, in that case it’s first come first served, so we would’a been trying to solve _your_ murder Sakamoto! Or since you’re such a terrible cook… your suicide! Pretty dumb way to go if ya ask me…” 

Ryuji visibly pales, “Then… what?! Wait, so I wasn’t a target?!” 

Togami shakes his head, “Apparently not. Then if that is the case, who was the target? We had already said that only two people could be murdered by one blackened and yet this still leaves us with three potential victims; Gamagoori, Sanageyama and Naegi.” 

“I don’t think we can narrow it down any further,” Dick says, “We know when they were initially poisoned, right?” 

Babs nods, “According to Naegi, the three of them had been drinking the same sports drink. Since they’re in the fridge normally, any one of us could have poisoned it.” 

“Oooooh, then what if we narrow down when they got poisoned the second time!” Tiny Tina suggests. 

Gaige shakes her head, “But there were still loads of us going in and out of their rooms that whole time. Is there anyone we can exclude from that?” 

“We can,” Babs nods, “Well… I mean, I was down here the whole time so I couldn’t have done it. But it’s written here,” she points to the notebook, “Up until Gamagoori’s and Sanageyama’s deaths, everyone except for Naegi and Sakamoto were tending to the victims. If they were bedridden then they probably didn’t poison the other two.” 

Naegi agrees, “I only started getting better after the investigation began, but honestly even now I’m still woozy. But then that still leaves Dick, Kiryuuin, Gaige, Tiny Tina, Akechi and Togami since we already decided that it’s unlikely that Pamela would do it.” 

Gaige shakes her head, “Actually, now that I think about it… I can probably narrow it down even further,” she looks over to Dick, “Remember? Someone here said something pretty suspicious.” 

Before Dick can say it, Barbara steps in, “It’s what Togami said, right? Actually, even what he told you is pretty weird. You said that you didn’t want to interact with Ryuji, right? Why would that be?” 

“The hell?!” Ryuji shouts, “Since when do you have any beef with me?!” 

Togami sighs, “Is it wrong of me to think that you are irritating? Even Gamagoori was much easier to deal with so long as you followed his rules. Then again, what good did they serve him?” 

“Dude… that’s cold,” Ryuji comments, “Like, I don’t give two shits what you think about me, but seriously? Gamagoori is dead and that’s how you’re treating him?” 

Togami huffs, “What good would it do to speak kindly of him now? This isn’t a game where you make friends, quite the opposite in fact. In that regard, and that one alone, I agree with Akechi.” 

“Oh my god it’s sooo obvious now!” Tiny Tina shouts and points at Togami, “He’s obviously the killer! I mean, he swapped the plates with Gaige! It’s gotta be him!” 

Kiryuuin pulls out the bamboo sword she held in her hands, “Confess Togami! You killed my men, didn’t you?!” 

Ryuji puts his hands in his pockets and looks down, “I can’t believe you tried to kill us for something that petty.” 

Dick shakes his head, “is that why he did it? I don’t think that’s much of a motive.” 

“I agree with that,” Barbara nods, “Well, I guess he could have tried to win the killing game but… if that was his end game, why kill two people, and in such a messy, uncertain way?” 

Gaige raise her voice, “That can’t be right!”  

* * *

 **REBUTTAL SHOWDOWN**  

She looks over to Barbara, “Maybe he was trying to make everything look super messy only to shift the blame onto someone else? I mean, since he switched the place he was probably trying to shift the blame onto me, but if that didn’t work, he could just say that Akechi, Dick or Pamela just put the poison in while taking care of everyone else!” 

Togami certainly had the possibility to poison them on his way to the rooms but… 

 **ADVANCE**  

Gaige continues, “It’s obvious, Togami put the poison in the meal just before switching out the plates with me.” 

“No that’s wrong!” 

 **BREAK**  

* * *

Barbara points to the notebook once more, specifically on the bottle of oil, “No one here recognised that as a regular bottle of oil, right?” when no one replies, she continues her explanation, “So then, I’d say it’s pretty suspicious that you found it in the kitchen, right where the food was being made. I think it’s then safe to say, that bottle most likely contained the poison. And if it did, then Togami couldn’t have poisoned them out in the hall.” 

“But like… couldn’t he just have poisoned them in the kitchen?” Ryuji asks, and Dick shakes his head. 

“No, Togami never cooked with us. We would’ve caught on if suddenly he added some oil to the food.” 

“Then we’re looking for someone who cooked regularly enough with everyone that their actions would go unnoticed?” Naegi asks, “Unless you guys remembered who specifically put oil into the food.” 

Dick shakes his head, “No, I can’t say I was paying attention... but at least now, we can narrow down the list.” 

Babs sighs and agrees with him, “Right… if it wasn’t Naegi, Ryuji, Pamela or Togami, that still leaves Kiryuuin, Akechi, Gaige, Tina… and Dick. That’s still to many people. Is there any way we can narrow that list down?” 

Ryuji rolls his eyes, “And once again, Akechi is a suspect. Yo, is there anyone we can definitely exclude from that list? Like some way to determine who was in the garden or not?” 

Barbara quickly turns the pages  and finds the answer, “I got it! Akechi… you knew about the doors in the garden, that’s why you wrote them down as evidence. Why is that?” 

“Oh?” Akechi finally speaks, “Am I not on a ‘time out’?” 

“Duuuude!” Ryuji shouts, “That’s why you weren’t talkin'?! Our lives are on the line here!” 

Akechi sighs, “Very well. Yes, I believe that this clue excludes Grayson. The garden doors are the only one’s which open into the room and not out into the corridors in this hotel. Given how the culprit must have entered the garden on multiple occasions, I assume they would instinctively remember how the door opened. However, when we went to investigate, Grayson clearly did not know this.” 

Kiryuuin looks down, “That… is quite a weak reason to remove Grayson from the suspect list… Nevertheless, that still leaves us with multiple suspects. Perhaps we should discuss further how the murder occurred?” 

Tina nods quickly,”Yaaaay! Lady S is finaaaally talking all normal again!” She cheers, “She right tho, what happened anyways?” 

Dick starts off, “We know that the three guys, Gamagoori, Sanageyama and Naegi, were probably poisoned when they drank the same sports drink. The killer probably just put the poison in there when the bottles were in the fridge in the kitchen.” 

Togami nods, “Yes, I agree with that, however, how would they be able to do it without us noticing?” 

“They probably just went in when we weren’t in the kitchen,” Gaige determines, “They must have grabbed the poison during nighttime and-,” 

“You’ve got that wrong,” Babs shakes her head, “They couldn’t have grabbed the poison then, because the garden is closed during nighttime. They must have done it after we all woke up.” 

Pamela agrees with her, “While that is true… I suppose there is the possibility that someone stayed in the garden all through the night. Of course, then they would not be able to fall asleep.” 

“If that happened, they probably brought the drink with them,” Babs continues, “It would be way easier and quicker to just put the poison there. They could just conceal the drink in case anyone was already up and put it back in the fridge when no one was looking.” 

“Wouldn’t the drink be warmer than the rest though?” Gaige asks. 

Naegi nods, “It would… and well, I didn’t think it was relevant then, or up until now, but I’m pretty sure when I got the drink out of the fridge, it was warmer than usual.” 

“Wait…” Akechi puts his hand on his chin, “Naegi… why exactly did you take that drink in the first place?” 

“Huh? Well, it had my name on it. We started labelling some of the bottles but we still got confu-,” the implications behind his words finally catch up to him. 

“You were the one the killer was trying to poison,” Pamela summarises, “Two attempts were already made on your life… and yet you weren’t killed. I find that quite… lucky,” she says, clearly suspicious of him, but Barbara quickly intervenes. 

“That must be it. He survived because of his talent. Naegi is the Ultimate Lucky Student,” she explains, “I mean… it could have been simply circumstance but it explains everything else in this case.” 

Togami smirks, “I did say his talent would be a clue to this case. Which also means we must now find who it is that tried to kill Naegi, but instead ended up killing Gamagoori and Sanageyama. Now then, who here had the motive and opportunity to commit the cri-“ 

Kiryuuin steps in, “No. We have still not determined when the other poison was administered.” 

“Pretty sure we said it was in the kitchen,” Gaige says. 

“I’m certain I would have noticed if someone poisoned the meals in the kitchen,” Akechi argues. 

“Then why didn’t you say so earlier!” Ryuji shouts at him. 

“He was on a time out!” Tiny Tina explains, “He’s right tho, preeetty big over sight.” 

Dick shakes his head, “It’s possible if they did it very subtly.” 

Monokuma jumps up in his seat, “hoooold on! Is that a disagreement I hear? You’re split right down the middle on an issue, riiiiight?” 

Ryuji sighs, “Not this again…” 

“You know what that meaaaaans!” 

The various stands begin to move, and the group is split into two. 

* * *

 **SPLIT OPINION**  

_When was the Poison Added to the Meal?_

This time around, Kiryuuin is the first to start the debate scrum, “We already determined that Togami was unable to poison the victims in the corridor.” 

Babs looks down the group, “Togami?” 

“As discussed before, the **poison** could have been concealed,” he argues, and Naegi steps in. 

“Adding the poison in the kitchen would be much safer.” 

“Tina?” Babs turns to her. 

“Ya but there were waaay too many people in the **kitchen**! One of youse would’ve noticed!” She replies quickly. 

Dick argues back, “They could have done it subtly enough that none of us noticed.” 

“Akechi?” Babs asks, and he quickly argues Dick’s point. 

“We were all keeping an eye on each other there, someone surely would have **noticed**.” 

Ryuji steps up, “but it’s poison, it’s pretty easy to just drop it into the meal without someone noticing.” 

“Pamela?” 

Pamela shakes her head, “No, if it was added to the **meal** using oil, that would have taken at least a few seconds to pour out without pouring the entire bottle out.” 

“So then what? The killer just added the poison out in the corridor?” Gaige asks. 

Barbara speaks up once more, “I got this; yeah, the killer must have added the poison in the **corridor** while everyone else was in the kitchen!” 

 **BREAK**  

* * *

“Woah!” Tina shouts, “Then Togami just dug his own grave! He’s totally the killer!” 

Barbara shakes her head, “no… given all of the clues, and knowing who the intended victim was, there’s only one person who could have done this. The one person who tried to introduce false ideas to make up for their mistakes… and that person-,” she looks up, over to the prime suspect, “-is you, Gaige.” 

“WHAT?!” She shouts, “You think I tried to kill Naegi?! That I killed Sanageyama and Gamagoori instead?! Sure, I’ve killed a bunch but that was just with a gun or a robot, if I’m gonna kill anyone it’s not gonna be with some poison. And if I wanted to do it, wouldn’t I at least do some research?” 

Barbara shakes her head, "I know that the culprit didn't do their research, because the book of poisons Akechi found hadn’t been used this entire time.” 

Akechi agrees, “That’s certainly true. You already knew that all of the plants in the garden were poisonous to some degree from Pamela, but you had no idea which ones were deadly. And as such you went to pick the one closest to the door, the oleander.” 

“How would you know that?” Gaige asks, “I think it’s pretty suspicious that Akechi already knew about the door, and now the poison too!” 

Togami raises an eyebrow, “I too wish to understand what you mean by that.” 

Gaige quickly nods, “Yeah! Besides, the oleander was missing, that’s what Pamela said, so even if I screwed up the dosage the first time there’s no way I’d be able to get the oleander the second time!” 

“No that’s wrong!” Babs shouts, “It wasn’t oleander that killed Gamagoori and Sanageyama, it was wolfsbane!” 

Pamela agrees with Barbara once more, “The oleander did go missing, and Gaige must have then used the next best plant. However… it wouldn’t make sense for Gaige to dispose of the oleander.” 

Ryuji shakes his head, “Maybe she was trying to dispose of the evidence?” 

Togami disagrees, “Then she would have done a far better job of it if she had stayed the entire night. The oleander I found was barely covered up by some dirt.” 

“So then, who disposed of it?” Kiryuuin asks. 

Barbara thinks over the case, and as it dawns on her, she points across the room, “he’s the only one,” she says, indicating Akechi, “Why did you dispose of such crucial evidence?” 

“Crucial?” Akechi raises an eyebrow, “I hardly think it’s crucial if we already knew it was used. But if you must know…” he sighs, “I did it in an attempt to stop any more murders from happening.” 

Ryuji shakes his head, “oh my god you are so full of shit! No wonder you’re the Ultimate Liar! You just did it to fu-.” 

Akechi shrugs and cuts him off, “Accept my reasoning or not, I’m not the one on trial anymore. Gaige is.” 

“I said, I didn’t do it!” Gaige argues, “Besides, I swapped plates with Togami! Why would I kill Gamagoori and Sanageyama?! It would’ve been way easier to pour the poison in after I did that, right? And why would I poison two people if my target was supposedly Naegi anyway?” 

The courtroom becomes quiet. It was true, if her target was Naegi, then she only needed to poison one plate. 

For a long time, everyone is quiet. Until finally, Dick, clearly begrudgingly, speaks up, “…after one failure, you needed to make sure at least one of them died… you already had planned a murder and it failed, and whatever motivated you, it was enough to make you poison not only two people… but two of your friends. The seconds time…. There weren’t any mistakes. You intended to kill both Gamagoori and Sanageyama.” 

“W-what?!” Gaige asks, “Why would I do that? I liked them!” 

Babs looks down, “Maybe… that was why you killed them. You already did something horrible, you probably thought there was no way to back out now so… at least you could end their suffering.” 

“They were getting better! Pamela said so!” Gaige refutes their reasoning. 

Pamela clenches her fist, “And once more I would like to reiterate; I am _not_ a doctor!” 

“Wait!” Naegi looks up, “That’s exactly why… Gaige, you knew you couldn’t trust Pamela’s judgement because you knew she wasn’t a doctor-.” 

“Of course she wasn’t a doctor!” Gaige shouts, “What the hell would she know about how they were doing?! Besides… I knew killing you would condemn them anyway, the least I could do was kill them before Monokuma did!” 

“So then you admit to killing the-,” Barbara starts but Dick cuts her off. 

“No, I refuse!” He shouts, “I…. I can’t accept that she killed Gamagoori, or Sanageyama!” 

Barbara looks away from him. Dick wasn’t stupid. He knew that Barbara was right, he was even backing up her claims earlier… but if she was, then he already knew what would happen. He was stalling, or maybe even trying to get everyone to vote differently, and if he was, Barbara would have to stop him. 

“They were her friends! She wouldn’t kill them!” He continues. 

“Huh?” Gaige looks over to him. 

“What proof do you have that Gaige did it anyway? So far it’s all been circumstantial, this wouldn’t hold up in a real court!” 

“Dick…” Barbara looks up, “please… just… let this end.” 

He shakes his head, “No dammit! I’m not going to vote until you show me some evidence proving her guilt! What happened to innocent till proven guilty? Are we really going to continue like this? Simply living in a reality where we all suspect each other?!” 

“Dick!” Barbara shouts, “Just let it go! I’ll… be fine… I promise!” 

“No! Show me the proof!” 

Babs grits her teeth and leaves her stand. She walks over to Akechi and grabs his hand. 

“Gordon?!” Akechi asks, surprised by her sudden action, “What do you think-,” 

She pulls off his glove and lifts up his hand, which clearly had a rash on it, “I figured you wouldn’t get your gloves dirty because then you’d have to explain why you stopped wearing them and possibly inform the culprit that you got rid of the oleander. So instead you grabbed it with your bare hands which gave you a rash.” 

“Then Akechi’s the killer!” Dick argues, but even his voice gives away that he knew he was wrong. 

Barbara points over to Gaige, “the bandage on your hand… If I’m wrong, and, well, to a certain extent I hope I am, it’s only covering up a cut, and not the same type of rash, right?” 

Kiryuuin speaks up as Gaige slowly removes her bandage, “That isn’t possible… I was there when she cut herself!” 

When Gaige completely removes the wrap, she lifts up her hand, showing an identical rash to Akechi’s. 

“Wait that’s still not-!” Dick continues arguing as Babs returns to her stand. 

“You won’t accept that?” Barbara asks him calmly, “Fine… then I guess I’ll just have to show you the facts of this case. Maybe then… you’ll accept the truth.”

* * *

 **CLOSING ARGUMENT**  

 _This case began_ _already four days ago, when the_ _killer_ _snuck into the garden_ _just before_ _nighttime_ _, after Pamela had already left. As_ _nighttime_ _arrived, the doors of the garden locked, and the_ _killer_ _had all night to execute their initial plan._  

 _They couldn’t go to sleep because of the Monokuma rule stating that the guests can’t sleep anywhere except the dorms, and so they got to work. They pulled out the sports drink- Naegi’s sports drink-_ _and extracted poison from the nearest plant they could find- the oleander. Since the killer had no experience with botany_ _and didn’t read the book of poisons, they didn’t know that doing that would give them a rash on their hand._  

 _Nevertheless, when morning came, the killer rushed out of the garden with the bottle concealed in their_ _clothing and_ _placed it back in the fridge before anyone else got into the kitchen._ _Since I wasn’t there, I can only guess that the killer hid their regular hand_ _until they could pretend that they got cut, which was when they bandaged themselves up. If anyone had asked, the killer could just say they cut themselves and even have an alibi for it._  

 _Meanwhile, Naegi had already retrieved his bottle, and unknowingly drank the poison. What the killer didn’t account for, or rather, didn’t expect, was for the victims of the case, Gamagoori and Sanageyama, to drink from the poisoned bottle. That probably also meant that the dosage got reduced between the three of them,_ _which meant not only did the killers plan fail, but it had also involved two other people, two people they wanted to keep out of this murder attempt._  

 _Back in the kitchen, Ryuji had been cooking_ _a meal for him and Pamela. Soon after, the others joined, and they started eating together. What Ryuji didn’t know, what we didn’t know for a long time, was that Ryuji had probably under-cooked the meal enough to give him a bad case of food poisoning. We didn’t know that because the effects were similar to that of the poisoning the other three experienced at the same time. Pamela didn’t feel it at all, because she’s immune to all toxins, even food poisoning._  

 _Seeing that the plan had failed, the killer started working on some other way to poison_ _the victims._  

 _After hearing that they were poisoned with oleander, Akechi rushed to the garden and hid the oleander in under some dirt. I’m guessing that since he didn’t know when the killer would come in, or when anyone else would come in, he rushed it. But it was enough to disorient the killer when they came back to obtain more of the plant._  

 _What_ _Akechi didn’t account for was the killer improvising. All they had to do was grab some other plant. This time it was wolfsbane. Now that Pamela no longer guarded the garden, it would’ve been much easier to obtain a poison, though I’m sure the killer didn’t want to risk getting caught either._  

 _On the day of the murder, the killer_ _placed some of the wolfsbane in a bottle and added oil to it. I’m sure to everyone else it would just appear like a regular bottle of oil infused with herbs_ _, however the killer still decided to hide it. They knew they had to be careful now that everyone knew of the murder attempt._  

 _Once they received_ _the meals, they poisoned them_ _with the hidden bottle of oil, most likely when Togami had his back turned_ _, knowing full well this was their only shot._ _To their luck, or maybe not,_ _Togami had asked to switch out their plates. Despite now having a chance to kill the intended target, the killer had already done the deed_ _, and couldn’t risk killing a third person._  

 _Later_ _, they_ _probably_ _poured the remaining oil down the sink and tried to hide the bottle, but unfortunately for them, Dick had already found it._  

 _There’s only one person who could’ve done this. One person who killed their friends. That person is you, isn’t it Gaige, the Ultimate Engineer?_  

* * *

Barbara sighs, “Do you get it now, Dick? I… know what you were trying to do, but… I couldn’t let you do it.” 

Everyone looks over to Dick, who now held onto his stand tightly and gritted his teeth. Everyone, except for Akechi, who focuses on Kiryuuin instead. 

“Were you not supposed to execute the killer?” He asks, tilting his head to the side, “I was quite intrigued about what you would do once you discovered the truth.” 

“You…” she looks over to him, “knew this whole time?” 

Akechi shakes his head, “Oh, no, not everything I suppose. Although I did suspect her since the beginning. I knew the killer had to have the same rash as me, and I knew I did not kill them. Gaige was the only one who could conceal such a rash.” 

“You…” Kiryuuin raises her sword, “Are truly despicable! Monokuma should execute you instead of Gaige! Did you want us all to die?! To have Gamagoori’s and Sanageyama’s murderer go free?!” 

Akechi shrugs, “Maybe I did… or maybe I wanted to save the one person who has risked her life for us to get us out of here. Or maybe I did it for my entertainment. Who knows what I value more?” 

Ryuji clenches his fist, “The hell? Even if I didn’t know the real you… you didn’t used to be like this!” 

“That’s exactly it, Sakamoto, I’m the Ultimate Liar,” Akechi explains, “And in this reality, that title is my best weapon. It’s certainly my best chance to escape now.” 

Before anyone else argued with him, Monokuma speaks up, “Ugh, so then are you ready to vote yet or what? All this waiting around is soooo boring!” Without waiting for a reply, the levers pull up in front of each of the guests. 

“Please use the lever in front of you to make your selection,” Monokuma blushes, “Who will be chosen as the blackened? Will you make the right choice, or the dreadfully wrong one? What’s it gonna be? What’s it gonna beeee?!” Monokuma cheers on. 

When all of the votes are in, the screen above Monokuma switches on. The same slot machine as before shows up and all of their faces scroll past, the ones of the dead guests black and white instead of the usual colourful ones. The slot machine slows down until three pictures of Gaige line up perfectly. Celebratory music plays over the speakers and confetti surrounds the screen as the word ‘GUILTY’ flashes on the screen. 

“Uhuhuhuhu, correct once again!” Monokuma laughs, “Although… hmm… well this is interesting. Only five of you actually voted for her! Four votes were cast for Akechi and one for Dick! Hm… well I would offer to just kill those that got it wrong but having you all figure out who voted incorrectly is waaay more interesting! Besides, it’s mob rule here, so the majority wins! And at the end of the day I getta execute two of ya so I ain’t complaining! Upupupup!” 

“What?!” Dick shouts, “No! Dammit I-!” 

“That’s enough!” Barbara shouts, but she quickly regrets it, “No… I… I’m sorry. I guess pretending like this wasn’t going to happen was my way of coping but… I can’t ignore it anymore,” she turns to Monokuma, “I broke the cameras. And you can execute me and me alone for that, but I sure as hell aren’t telling you why I did it. I have no obligations to do that, and since I know you have to obey the rules of this game as much as we do, you can’t get me to confess either.” 

Monokuma growls, but quickly stops, “yeah well… I getta kill you anyway!” 

“No!” Dick shouts again, “Dammit Babs… I already lost Jason, Wally, Artemis and Rose… I can’t lose you too!” He tried to leave his stand, but the back of it suddenly locks, and suddenly bars come up around it and bend together to form a bird cage, “W-what?! What is this?!” 

“Weeeelll,” Monokuma begins his explanation, “I know that you’re just gonna try and ruin my fun so I gotta make sure you don’t interrupt!” 

“Monokuma, wait!” Kiryuuin steps in, “First… if you’ll let me, I need to ask Gaige something… why would you ever think of killing anyone in the first place?” 

Gaige looks down, “I guess this is my last chance to be honest, huh? Well… I didn’t have anything against Naegi, I just figured that if no one tried to kill him before then that’s all there is to his Ultimate Luck. I couldn’t kill Tina, Togami was never around, and the rest of you would have been impossible to kill… but if I could somehow get away with it… then at least I could save more people than just myself. I guess… I thought that this would be my only shot at killing a group of people I’ve come to like without feeling regret but… well, that didn’t happen. I already felt terrible for what I did to those three but living in this hotel, going through this killing game, I couldn’t imagine a worse hell.” 

“Then it was a mercy killing,” Pamela concludes, “I… it was extreme for you to think that, but… I can’t say I don’t empathise.” 

Monokuma hums, “Ya know… Kiryuuin, I’ll give ya a one time deal! Your offer was pretty interesting, so if ya want, I’ll let ya execute Gaige yourself! I’ve got plenty of executions anyway!” 

“I refuse,” she replies immediately. 

“Oh?” Monokuma tilts his head, “Not even if it would let ya get out of here?” 

“No,” she replies firmly, “I cannot forgive Gaige for what she has done so easily. But I would never execute such a young girl. She is right, this killing game is truly hell, and you, Monokuma, are the devil. When the time comes, the only one I will execute is you.” 

Monokuma remains silent, until he suddenly bursts out laughing, “Oh I’ve heard that far too many times, but it always gets a big ol’ laugh outta me! Ah well, I get to have more fun then! Now then, I’ve prepared two, very special punishments for the Ultimate Engineer, Gaige the Mechromancer, and the Ultimate Hacker, Barbara Gordon!” 

Monokuma pulls out a gavel, and a big red button emerges in front of him. He smacks it with the gavel, and the monitor above him changes images. In the middle of a red screen, black and white 8-bit versions of Gaige and Barbara appear. Above them is written ‘GAME OVER’ in white pixels on a black background. A similar 8-bit version of Monokuma appears from the left side of the screen as some 8-bit sound effects come on and makes its way over to Gaige, who appeared to be calm. Bellow them some text is typed out, ‘GAIGE HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY.’ 

As the bear reaches Gaige, the pixels change and Monokuma is dragging Gaige away by a rope, with her thrashing her feet around on the ground while Barbara’s pixelated figure’s eyes widen and her hands cover her mouth in horror. The final bit of text is typed out, ‘TIME FOR THE PUNISHMENT!’ 

* * *

 **SUPER ROBOT VIOLENCE FUN TIME**  

When the screen lights up again, Gaige is in something resembling a school gym, however with multiple small stands and tables around. With how many gadgets were lying around, she quickly realises that she is trapped in a futuristic science fair. She runs over to the doors of the gym and opens them, but on the other side, vines with sharp thorns pour into the room. She manages to jump out of the way quickly enough to avoid them. 

The windows of the gym break and the same vines appear and grow over all of the windows. When she looks to the back of the room where a stage was, the vines start to appear from backstage. 

She runs around the stalls, and soon finds a robotic arm, similar to hers. She pulls out a screwdriver and quickly tries to modify the arm as the vines grow quicker and quicker, slowly making their way towards her while cover the walls. 

As they get nearer, she detaches her robotic arm and replaces it with her new one. She shouts something inaudible, and a robot, supposedly Gaige’s Deathtrap, slowly appears in thin air. At first, Gaige grins when the robot lifts it’s sharp claws, but when it turns around, it has Monokuma’s face and colour scheme at the front. 

Gaige turns and tried to run away, but the robot grabs her by the leg, causing her to draw blood and throws her against one of the walls. 

The vines catch her and tangle around her arms and legs, trapping her. The Mono-trap flies over to her and lifts up both of his sharp claws. The screen itself slowly becomes enveloped by vines and covers the horrors happening to the engineer. 

* * *

Back in the courtroom, everyone looks down to Monokuma’s throne, expecting to find him laughing there, but instead, he’s gone. They quickly look around and find that Barbara was gone too. For a short period of time, when the pixelated Monokuma didn’t pull her away, they had hoped that she had managed to escape punishment, and yet, the screen lights up once more, now only showing regular Monokuma, “sorry folks, buuuut after that messy punishment, Gordon’s punishment will have to wait! Stay tuned!” 

The screen returns to black, Dick’s birdcage returns to a regular stand, and the elevator doors of the courtroom open up. 

“Oh one more thing!” Monokuma pops up on the screen again, “Look behind my chair for some special prizes you forgot to collect last time you were here!” 

Being the closest to the chair, Pamela walks behind it and lifts up some objects. The first one was small and white, “This… it’s Rose’s eye patch… and the other...” she lifts up a robotic arm, “Gaige’s arm.” 

Tiny Tina runs over and grabs the arm from her, “I… I’m taking this, okay?! And none of you can stop me!” she runs into the elevator, while Pamela puts the eye patch into her shirt pocket. 

“I will…. Hold onto this,” she looks over to Dick, who hadn’t moved since the cage had been opened, “Grayson… if I can say something, don’t you think it’s quite odd for Monokuma to not punish Barbara immediately?” 

“…what are you talking about?” He looks up, completely defeated, “Monokuma… he’s just trying to prolong this, make Barbara pay for what she did.” 

Pamela looks down, “If that is how you wish to interpret this… well… I guess it’s not my job to cheer you up. Even if you might be our only remaining hope of getting us out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I actually had this chapter written for a long time, but the main issue I'm having right now is finding the time to edit. I have absolutely no idea if I'll have more time in the future or less, but what I can tell you is that I have almost finished writing everything for this.
> 
> Anyway thank you guys for sticking with me this whole time, I hope you enjoy what I have in store now that we've finished up the 3rd trial!


	15. Eye for an Eye, Blood for Blood- END

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For a third time, another floor is opened to the group.

The elevator doors open back out into the lobby, and everyone, save for Dick leaves. The elevator doors don’t close, and the red door ahead of them doesn’t open either. Ryuji turns around and grabs Dick by the wrist, “I… well, I know how shitty everything is, especially now that we don’t know what happened to Barbara but… I can’t say I knew her very well, but you know she woulda wanted you to keep looking for a way outta here, right?” 

Dick nods slowly, and Ryuji gives him a small, encouraging smile and drags him out of the elevator, “And hey, there’s gonna be a new floor that’s opened. I guess we should probably get some rest after all that’s happened, but after that we can all go investigate together, right? We’ll totally get out of here, I just kno-!” 

“Sakamoto…. Please,” Kiryuuin leaves her back to him, “Shut up.” 

“What?” Ryuji looks over to her, surprised. 

“Perhaps moving on from Takamaki’s death was much easier for you… but right now I cannot pretend tha-,” this time, Ryuji cuts her off. 

“Easy?! Are you serious?!” His expression immediately changes, “Of course it wasn’t easy! Dammit, losing her hurts even now! But I know she would’a wanted us to find a way out of here, before the killing game continues! Wouldn’t Gamagoori or Sanageyama?!” He looks back to Dick, “Or Artemis or Rose?! Come on!” He walks over to the red door and kicks it open, “If none of you are gonna do it, then I’ll just have to do it for you! I’ll find a way out of here! I swear it!” 

Dick finally looks up from the ground and towards him, “Ryuji… how can you just ignore what’s happened?” 

“Ignore it?” Ryuji raises an eyebrow, “Hell no! I’m letting all that hurt, all that rage, all that sadness fuel me! Now, you can either join me, or mope, I sure as hell won’t let you get in my way.” 

Akechi smirks and puts a hand on his hip, “Well, you certainly lack Amamiya’s charm, but I suppose that speech will have to do. Very well, Sakamoto, I will help you.” 

Ryuji looks defeated for a brief second, but his mood quickly shifts back, “ya know what? I’ll take what I can get. Tina?” 

“Hell yeah!” She jumps up, “I’m gonna beat the crap outta Monokuma with this arm!” She raises Gaige’s robotic arm, “It’s what she would’a wanted!” 

“Togami, Naegi, you were once part of the killing game, right? You must wanna get outta here too?” Ryuji asks them. 

Naegi nods once, and the brief smile on Togami’s face is enough confirmation for Ryuji, “Yeah, we took down Monokuma before, we can do it again!” 

“Pamela?” 

She shrugs, “I suppose it is the only way for me to really escape, so I have to accept.” 

“Kiryuuin, Dick… I know this shit hurts right now, and it ain’t gonna get better any time soon, but I know finding who’s behind this and kicking their ass is gonna make ya feel hell of a lot better. So, what do you say?” 

Kiryuuin grips Sanageyama’s bamboo sword tighter, “I promised I would execute Monokuma myself… I intend to keep that promise.” 

“Dick?” 

Dick steps over to him and puts a hand on his shoulder, “I’ll continue Babs’ investigation. I’ll solve the mystery of this hotel, and get us all out of here. You’ve got my word.” 

* * *

Meanwhile, in a darkened room surrounded by monitors, the one watching everyone pounds their fist on the table, “I hate hate hate hate hate these hopeful types! Who do they think they are, messin up my plans?!” 

Another person laughs behind them, “Wow, didn’t think he’d bother you so much. He hasn’t before. Don’t let it get in the way of our true goal.” 

“Yes, yes, yes, blah, blah, blah, doesn’t mean he’s not pissing me off! Besides, he didn’t piss me off because he didn’t act like this before! He’s not supposed to be the hopeful one!” 

The other grins widely, “The more hopeful types, the better, riiiiiiight? After all, having our subjects believe they can get out of here alive only to crush that hope is what ultimate despair is aaaaall about!” 

“Hmm… well, it’s your call! So then, should be their next motive? Oooh, maybe we can kill off their families? Destroy their livelihoods?” 

“No no no no no!” the other person shouts, “God you’re such a fucking amateur! No! Just follow the goddamn script! That’s why I gave it to you!” 

“Fine! Jeez, never think I’d actually do what someone else tells me to… but if you can guarantee bringing ultimate despair to the ultimate hope, I guess I should listen!” 

The other person hums and leans closer to the monitors, “by the way… what happened to Gordon? Did you execute her?” 

“Huh? Oh yeah sure.” 

“That doesn’t sound very convincing.” 

“Well, whatever! She’s gone anyway so what difference does it make!” 

“But was that cos of you or not?” 

“Who knows? Maybe I pressed the wrong button by accident or something! She’s not a problem now anyway!” 

The other person thinks over their situation, and eventually leans away. They begin leaving the room, “Fine, but if she somehow becomes a problem, you know what happens then,” they wrap their hands around their arms, squeezing them, “Punishment Time!” 

* * *

 ** _*Ding_ ** **_dong, bing_ ** **_bong*_ **  

“Good morning everyone! Get ready to greet another beauuuuuutiful day!” Monokuma announces though the monitor. 

Dick gets out of bed and immediately heads to the bathroom. Once he’s washed up and brushed his teeth, he makes his way over to the dining hall where most of the others were already waiting for him. Ryuji jumps out of his seat in order to greet him. 

“Yo! You’re here! I was starting to worry you were just all talk yesterday!” Ryuji grins widely, and the others slowly leave their seats. 

“Are you ready to explore the fourth floor then?” Togami asks. 

“It’s opened up?” Dick asks, but Tina shrugs. 

“That’s what we’re gonna go and find out! But you were taking foreva! Soooo… Akechi got bored and scouted ahead with Kiryuuin.” 

Dick couldn’t help but smirk at the situation, “still no faith in him, huh?” 

“Hell no!” Ryuji exclaims and backs away from Dick, “Akechi’s an ass and always will be… but I gotta admit he’s pretty useful when it comes to investigating, so maybe with Kiryuuin babysittin’ him, he’ll find something useful.” 

“Then what are we watin’ foooor?!” Tiny Tina perks up and point to the door, “Let’s go! Let’s get outta this dumb hotel!” 

With that, they all leave the dining hall and with Dick leading the way, the guests climb the stairs to the top of the fourth floor of the hotel. At the top, Ryuji starts huffing and panting, clutching onto his chest, “Why… ain’t there… a… lift?!” 

Naegi, panting as well but not nearly as dramatically as Ryuji, chuckles, “Weren’t you supposed to be the Ultimate Sprinter? That’s gotta require some atheletiscm, right?” 

“Yeah, but that works in bursts and shit,” Ryuji explains and straightens himself out, “Besides… this hotel’s floors are super far apart. We always gotta climb two super long flights of stairs.” 

Pamela hums, and looks back at the stairs, “That is rather odd now that I think about it. Perhaps there is a reason for it?” 

“We are talking about a sadistic bear,” the group hears Akechi’s voice coming from the other side of the hall, “his reasoning may simply be that he wished to watch us suffer,” he walks down the hall with Kiryuuin a couple of steps behind him. 

“Have you discovered anything of interest?” Togami asks. 

“Perhaps something of interest to the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, yes,” Akechi nods and points down the hall, where the corridor split into two directions, one right and one left, “the right side leads towards this hotel’s VIP Room. The walls in that room are, as one might guess, soundproofed, and the room itself is large and decorated.” 

“Where’s the catch?” Naegi asks, immediately suspicious of the room. 

“Well, first of all, it only has one bed,” Akechi mentions, “Monokuma already explained everything to us, and we are in fact allowed to sleep in the room, but only if it is on the bed. Other than that, the room does have a lock.” 

Pamela raises an eyebrow, “So, no hook? Someone can just lock themselves in the best room in the hotel?” 

Akechi nods, “Absolutely.” 

“False,” Kiryuuin contradicts him, “He’s lying. While there is a lock on the door, Monokuma claims that it is broken. I tested it out and that is in fact true.” 

“You could still barricade the door and lock it like that,” Akechi points out, “So I wasn’t technically lying.” 

“You’re the worst,” Ryuji groans and walks past him to the end of the corridor, “Find anything else here?” 

Akechi and consequently Kiryuuin shake their heads, “We did not have the time to investigate further,” Kiryuuin explains, “And I’d advise a more thorough search of the VIP Room, as we did not manage to investigate that room fully either.” 

“then we’ll do it aaaall together!” Tina jumps up and runs down the corridor, “Imma go look at the VIP Room!” she disappears around the corner before anyone objects. 

Akechi continues explaining, “there are two more doors in the other direction, though we do not know what is behind them. There are also stairs which lead to the next floor.” 

“it’s open already?!” Ryuji asks. 

Kiryuuin shakes her head, “Not quite, there is a gate blocking our path… however, I believe it’s best if you all go look at what lies beyond it yourselves.” 

“What’s that supposed to-,” Dick begins, but Ryuji runs back to the group and pulls him down the corridor. 

“We’ll have a look there then we’ll come back down!” Ryuji shouts to the others and walks up the stairs with Dick. 

“Any reason why you pulled me away from everyone else?” Dick asks as they walk up the stairs. 

Ryuji hesitates to ask him the question on his mind, at least until they reach the second flight of stairs, “You’re… not hiding anything from us, are you?” 

“Like what?” Dick asks, genuinely unsure of what he was getting at, “If I haven’t told you something about Monokuma or my investigation, it’s only because I’ve forgotten.” 

Ryuji stops and turns around, “Yeah but… after the others got poisoned, you pretty much spent all of your free time in your room, so what were you doing?” 

Dick sighs and reaches behind his jumper, “I was working on the investigation, some stuff that Babs passed on to me… and also on dismantling this,” he pulls out the gun he got from Akechi, and acts swiftly when Ryuji almost shouts. He runs over to him and cover his mouth, “Don’t!” He whispers and puts the gun away again, “Look, Akechi had it before, but he gave it to me. I’m pretty sure you and everyone else here would rather a real cop to have this gone than a famous serial killer,” he pulls away from Ryuji once he’s sure he won’t be loud, “but… for now keep it under tabs. Akechi isn’t the only one here who’s killed before.” 

“You don’t think someone else will kill, do you?” 

“We don’t know what Monokuma’s got planned, and even without him… well, I’d rather not have word get out that there’s a gun in this killing game,” he points up the stairs and puts the gun back into his jeans, “Either way, I’m making sure I’ve got it with me at all times. So, any questions or should we continue the investigation?” 

Ryuji nods wordlessly and continues leading the way up. They reach the gate and grab onto the railing. Beyond the gate is a similar corridor to the one downstairs, however this one is far creepier than any of the others. Blood stains the walls and carpet, some of the wallpaper had come off, bullet holes are clear in both the walls and the floors.  

Right at the end, there’s some clear writing on the wall in sharpie, which Ryuji reads out loud. 

“’This is how your game ends. No one will ever have to suffer again.’… What the hell happened here?!” 

Dick’s more concerned with something else, “That’s… that’s my handwriting…”

Ryuji slowly looks back to him, glancing over each part of the hallway as he brings his attention to the superhero,

“…what did you do?” 


	16. One is the Lonliest Number- Daily Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The writing on the wall glares at Dick, but he refuses to let anything stop him from investigating Monokuma.

Dick and Ryuji slowly make their way back down the stairs, unsure of what to tell the others. Surely, Akechi and Kiryuuin knew it was his writing? They watched him write down a list of suspects less than a week ago, not to mention that list remained up in the dining hall. Maybe they didn’t see it or didn’t focus on the writing but…

“I… I’ve never been to that floor before… nor has anyone else…” Dick tries to figure out the situation, “Whose blood was that…? Do… did I actually forget something?” 

Ryuji rubs the back of his head, “honestly, I can’t make any sense of it… but uh, if you’re really that worried, you wanna give the gun to me? I mean, I'm like one of the few people left here who hasn't actually killed anyone.” 

Dick raises an eyebrow, but nonetheless he complies and hands the gun over to him, “Ryuji… what if I’m the mastermind?” 

“Huh? The hell are you talkin' bout?” 

“Well… assuming that I don’t remember doing any of this, it would explain some things, right? I could just use Bruce Wayne’s fortune to build this place, I’ve got the skills to trap you all in here… Barbara had figured something out but didn’t tell me, maybe she knew I had made all of this.” 

Ryuji shakes his head, putting the gun away in a similar manner to Dick, “nah, I don’t believe it. The writing is pretty weird but it’s probably just really similar writing, or Monokuma probably just copied it to freak you out. I mean, we got no access there anyway. Monokuma’s just messing with as, ya know?” 

Dick starts to slowly walk down the stairs again, “I… guess you’ve got a point,” he quickly shakes his head, “No, you’re absolutely right. Monokuma’s only trying to mess with my head. He tried to do it before with Babs, now with this… I can’t let this stop me,” he looks behind him at the blond sprinter, “thanks man, I… I’m glad I can rely on someone to keep my head straight.” 

“Hell yeah!” he exclaims, “So… uh, do ya maybe want the…. Y’know…” he points behind him, “back? I mean… I technically fired a gun before but those were all models and it wasn’t at real people…. Knowing that this thing is real and can do some damage is seriously freaking me out.” 

Since they had gotten to the bottom of the stairs, Dick looks up and down the corridor. Once the coast is clear, he regains the gun from him and hides it once more, then points to the door directly opposite the VIP Room, “Let’s investigate there first. We’ll leave the VIP room till last.” 

“Right!” Ryuji obediently follows Dick, who had now clearly taken charge of the situation once more.

Dick, followed by Ryuji, opens up the doors to their first destination, and he’s immediately met with a gust of steam in his face. 

“I see you have come to join us in the sauna,” he hears Kiryuuin’s voice inside, but does not see her. Ryuji quickly closes the doors behind him as to not let any more of the steam out, “Although it is quite strange to have doors lead directly to a sauna.” 

“But we didn’t see any steam coming out of here before,” Dick hears Naegi comment, and soon enough as the steam clears a little bit and his eyes adjusts, he finds the other two fully clothed, although Naegi had rolled up his shirt sleeves, loosened his tie and removed his jacket while Kiryuuin remained the same, stoic as ever. if not a little sweaty. 

“Yo I’ve been meaning to ask, you wear that suit all the time?” Ryuji asks, pointing to Naegi, who shakes his head. 

“Only to work, but that’s where I was taken from. I would change my clothes if I could… but all I’ve got in my wardrobe are swimming trunks, bathrobe, pyjamas and a giant winter coat… I’ve managed to wash it a few times but it’s all I’ve got to wear here normally…” 

“If you think bout it… it’s a little odd that we weren’t even given more clothes,” Ryuji points out, “Not even like copies or anything…” 

“It’s probably to make the killing game that much harder,” Dick explains, thinking back to their first case, “We only solved Takamaki’s murder because Monika couldn’t change her clothes without us becoming suspicious,” he wipes the sweat forming on his forehead, “So, uh, anything left to investigate here, or can we leave?” 

Kiryuuin sighs, “Unfortunately, I could not find any clues in here. It appears that this is a just regular sauna. Perhaps we should look if Pamela and Akechi had any luck in the other room?” 

“You left Akechi with Pamela?” Ryuji asks. 

“Is that a problem?” Naegi replies with a question. 

Dick sighs, opening the door and letting more of the steam leave the room, “… don’t be surprised if the body discovery announcement goes off.” 

* * *

Dick is the first to walk into the recreation room, the room that Pamela and Akechi were apparently investigating. He’s surprised to find them completely silent and in two separate corners of the room, “This… is somehow worse than what I was expecting. What’s with the animosity?” 

“Well-,” Akechi begins but Ryuji interrupts him. 

“Oh no, not you,” he refuses to listen to Akechi’s testimony and looks over to Pamela, “Did something happen here?” 

Pamela shrugs, flipping through the magazines on the shelf in the back, “Akechi began insisting that he and he alone will end the killing game, and I merely informed him that with that attitude, he will be the next to die.” 

“How could I not take that as a threat?” Akechi turns away from a chessboard sitting on a coffee table, “Or perhaps a challenge?” 

Naegi raises an eyebrow, “Would you really risk killing anyone after we’re all weary of you? You’re always one of the suspects in the case. You can’t kill someone without us noticing.” 

Akechi works at record speeds, pulling an object out from his jacket pocket and pinning Naegi against a wall. He holds a knife to his throat, while his other hand keeps Naegi’s in a lock, “Are you quite sure about that? Were any of you even aware that I had this knife with me?” 

“Akechi!” Dick shouts, but the younger detective ignores him. 

“Do not forget, we are in a killing game. We can act all friendly while we investigate Monokuma, but until we know his true identity, any one of us could snap under Monokuma’s motive of the week,” he pulls away from Naegi before Kiryuuin or Dick do it themselves and drops the knife soundlessly on the carpeted floor, “Now that I have made that clear once more, shall we continue our investigation?” 

“What?!” Ryuji exclaims, “Is no one going to react to what just happened?” 

Kiryuuin shakes her head, “It wouldn’t be the first time he’s done this, and I expect it won’t be the last. If it is how he says it is, we must continue our investigation, and for that, we will search this room until we find evidence against Monokuma.” 

Without further comment, the group searches the recreation room, without Naegi, who decided to search the only other room left on the floor, the VIP room. He never explicitly stated it, but Dick was fairly certain that even Naegi now felt uncomfortable around Akechi. Then again, by now Dick was pretty sure he and Kiryuuin were the only two who could deal with Akechi's outbursts. However, in Dick’s case, it was less knowing that he could win in a fight against him and more that he knew by now Akechi was all talk and no serious action. 

Despite seeing Pamela do so earlier, Dick still decides to have a closer look at the magazines on the shelf and flips through them. At first, he doesn’t notice anything glaring, no pictures, nothing indicating where they could have been or even how much time had passed. It was only while flipping through the magazine Dick noticed it. He turns around and opens up the magazine for the others, “guys, I think I found something.” 

Everyone in the room turns around as Dick flips through the magazine in front of them. None of them pick up what he was referring to, “I don’t get it,” Ryuji is the first to say. 

“Well, this is supposed to be a magazine, right? So, why aren’t there any pictures?” Dick asks, flipping through it once more, “It’s only articles,” he closes it to show the front page, which only had a picture of a bookcase on it, and a title which read ‘The Library Times’, “see? Even the front cover is really bland. That’s not normal for a magazine.” 

Akechi reaches for the magazine but doesn’t take it from Dick. He points to the bookcase then goes to pick up another magazine, “That’s not just any bookcase, it’s quite similar to the ones in the library,” he shows the front cover of the next magazine he picks up, this time, one which had a rope on the cover and was titled ‘Gym Illustrated’, “This one is clearly a picture of the gym… but what are the articles about?” 

Ryuji, Kiryuuin and Pamela all grab a magazine themselves about the kitchen, conference room and garden respectively. Kiryuuin answers his question first, “The first few articles appear to simply describe how the room looks… however it is quite odd that it is in text form. Why are there no pictures?” 

Ryuji furrows his eyebrows, “That ain’t even all of it… here’s where it gets weird… there’s entire logs of how much time we spend in these rooms. But like…” he glances over to the shelf, “There’s magazines on the rooms up here, or ones we haven’t even seen, probably on the fifth floor.” 

Pamela sets the one she was reading back on the shelf and picks up a different magazine, one that read ‘The Morgue Post,’ “There’s a morgue here?” she asks, but no one replies, waiting on her to read more, “I suppose they have to store the bodies of the dead somewhere… but this is quite odd,” she shows them the log, 

 **HOURS SPENT IN MORGUE**  

 _Dick Gr_ _ayson:_ 12 

 _Ryuji Sakamoto:_ 2 

 _Gaige:_ 3 

 _Tiny Tina:_ 3 

 _Ann Takamaki:_ 0 

 _Satsuki Kiryuuin:_ 5 

“Do either of you remember this?” Pamela asks Dick and Kiryuuin, but Akechi answers the question instead. 

“Of course not, because they were never there,” he points to a different name, “How could Gaige have spent 3 hours in that room if she is dead and we did not have access to it earlier?” 

Dick shakes his head, “There’s something else that bothers me… If Takamaki’s dead, then why mention her at all? It should be obvious that she hadn’t spent any hours in the morgue if she had died before… but none of the others are even mentioned here…” 

Kiryuuin closes her eyes, “I cannot say that I remember ever going to any place in this hotel resembling a morgue… perhaps we should meet with the others and discuss this.” 

* * *

Once he’s done with the rec room, Dick heads towards the VIP room that Togami, Tiny Tina and now Naegi were investigating, “Hey guys,” he says, knocking on the door twice, “We found some… uh, well, interesting things. Did either of you find anything?” 

Tiny Tina lies on the large king-sized bed in the middle of the room, “Just that this bed is sooooo comfortable! Too bad I’d probably get stabbed or somethin’ if I stayed here overnight,” she sits up, and bounces off the bed while Togami walks over to Dick. 

He pulls a small object out from his pocket and shows it to Dick, “We also discovered this flash drive in one of the cupboards. Given how proficient your lover was with computers, I entrust you with it.” 

“Uh… thanks?” Dick ends up asking, since he struggles to find a correlation between the two.

“Ya know,” Tiny Tina skips over, pointing it out herself, “Just cos his GF was a hacker don’t mean he’s any good wit tha-,” 

“Actually,” Dick interrupts her, “I was the one who taught Babs the basics of hacking… but how about we all go down to the computer room and check this out ourselves? I doubt Monokuma would leave this lying around without expecting us to look at what’s on it.” 

Togami nods, “Very well, I’ll meet you downstairs in ten minutes then.” 

“Huh?” Tiny Tina tilts her head, “Where ya off to?” 

“Upstairs,” he walks past Dick, “If we are to determine Monokuma’s identity and leave this place, I believe it is everyone’s responsibility to fully investigate the area… especially if we are still to believe that one of us is the culprit.” 

Once he leaves the room, Tiny Tina folds her arms, “What a weirdo. So, we gonna look at the probably dirty stuff Monokuma has on there?” 

“…you’re 13. I hope to god whatever he has on here is age appropriate.” 

Tiny Tina bursts out laughing, “You sayin that to a girl who blows up people for fun? Ahahahah! I’ve seen waaaay worse than whateva Monokuma’s put on there!” 

“…fair enough.” 

* * *

With Tina’s help, Dick manages to gather all of the remaining guests, save for Togami, into the computer room in order to inspect what exactly was on the flash drive. 

He plugs it into the computer with no files on it, avoiding the one Babs used, and finds only one file on the flash drive. 

Once again, it’s a video file, however, this time it did not have a name. 

Dick looks behind him, and Kiryuuin is the one who encourages him with a nod. 

“Whatever it may be… We should discuss whether it is a fake or not after we have seen it. Please, Grayson, proceed.” 

Dick turns back around and opens up the video file. 

* * *

 _The screen is black at first, until it show_ _s the corridor of the top floor. So far, it looked_ _normal, just like all of the other corridors, but Dick recognised the layout and there was no mistake._  

 _This was the explanation for the state of that corridor._  

 _The first person to appear is Gaige, running down the corridor. She looks behind her, “_ _you’re all so slow! He can’t get us if we’re in the morgue!”_  

 _“Shouldn’t an investigation have started?!” They hear_ _Takamaki_ _shouting, and soon enough she appears_ _on the screen, helping Ryuji to the door, “he’s already… Tina is…”_  

 _“Dammit Ann, keep it together! He can’t kill more than two people, right?!_ _Monokuma’s_ _gonna_ _stop him! He’s_ _gotta_ _!” Ryuji tries to stand on his own, and hobbles over to the door of what Dick assumed_ _was the door of the morgue, “What the hell happened  to him anyway?!” He was fine this morning!_  

 _“We can figure that out later!”_ _Gaige shouts, “Right now we_ _gotta_ _get to safety! I_ _dunno_ _how long_ _Kiryuuin_ _can hold him back!”_  

 _“_ _Not as long as you would’ve liked.”_  

 _A chill runs down Dick’s spine as he recognises his voice better than_ _anyone else would._  

 _He appears on the screen, covered in some scars and bruises, his jumper stained with blood. In one hand, he holds a gun, the same one which_ _he had in hidden in the waistband of his trousers, underneath his jumper. In the other, he was_ _dragging_ _Kiryuuin's lifeless body_   _by her hair._  

 _He drops her on the floor and shoots her in the head on screen._ _Takamaki_ _shrieks and Ryuji reaches for the door. Ryuji pulls at it, but it stays closed, “What the_ _fu_ _-,”_  

 _“Oh, I told_ _Monokuma_ _I nee_ _ded the key to that door to do something which would make the killing game far more interesting. I doubt that he had this in mind, however,” the Dick Grayson on screen lifts his gun and points it at the group. First, he shoots_ _Takamaki_ _, right in the head, killing her instantly._  

 _“_ _Goddammit!” Ryuji shouts and tries to catch_ _Takamaki_ _as she falls, “Why are you doing this?!_ _You won’t bring any of them back like this!”_  

 _“You think I don’t know that?!” Dick’s voice breaks as he shouts, “They’re all fucking dead and we don’t even know who_ _Monokuma_ _is!” He sighs, and lowers his voice, “I said I would end the killing game, once and for all. All_ _Monokuma_ _wants is to watch us suffer,” he points the gun at Gaige, “This… it’s mercy.”_  

 _He shoots at Gaige, but Ryuji drops Takamaki's dead body and jumps in front of her at the last second, taking the bullet._ _He falls to the ground, dead._  

 _Gaige panics and runs to the back of the corridor, but it’s no use, as there were no more doors or stairs left to run down, “please! Dick! Come on! You_ _gotta_ _know-!”_  

 _He fires his gun once more, killing Gaige. He_ _strides over to_ _where her body lay, and pulls out a black marker._  

 _’This is how your game ends. No one will ever have to suffer again.’_  

 _Dick watches in horror as he himself drops the marker on screen. Someone else comes up behind him, but they’re completely blurred out on the video. Their voice is too distorted to decipher who it was._  

 _“_ _Never did we_ _think that you or any of the others would resort to this… luckily, we have a_ _punishment prepared just for this kind of behaviour!”_  

 _The Dick on screen shakes his head, “No… I won’t play along with your game any longer!” He puts the gun to his head and before he can pull the trigger, the screen goes to black._  

 _Dick sees his own reflection, along with the pale faces of everyone else watching._  

* * *

“I… I gotta…” Ryuji starts before running out of the room, holding a hand to his mouth, passing Togami on the way. 

“Grayson, care to explain why your writing is on the wall upstairs?” 

Dick remains silent, and instead, Pamela speaks for him. 

“It’s just another way for Monokuma to mess with our minds,” Pamela explains, “Supposedly, Grayson had murdered Takamaki, Kiryuuin, Ryuji and Gaige upstairs, and presumably Tiny Tina elsewhere. However, that is absolutely impossible. The video is clearly a fake.” 

“Puhuhuhuhu!” Monokuma walks through the door at that moment, “nope! You’re completely wrong! That video is 1000% real, and unedited! Well… almost, but I couldn’t let you see the hosts face now, could I?” 

Naegi rubs his left arm, “Does that mean one of us would recognise you if we even saw or heard you on screen?” 

“Ack!” Monokuma jumps up, “Uh… I never said that! Arrivederci!” He jumps back behind the door. 

“Real…?” Dick mutters, “But I couldn’t-.” 

“Simply because the video is real does not mean it was you on screen,” Akechi says, “Those could have been actors, or body doubles… whatever the case, this video gives us nothing of value and we should discard it all together. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have better things to do than watch something so unnecessarily violent,” he turns around and leaves the room, passing by Togami. 

Kiyuuin looks away from the screen, “I… shall go make sure Sakamoto is recovering from this,” she leaves the room as well. 

To his surprise, it’s Pamela once more who brings Dick the most comfort by putting a hand on his shoulder, “Akechi might be a pain in the ass, but he is correct. There is no reason for us to believe Monokuma, and we know you could not have killed anyone on screen. These people… they trust you, Grayson. I’m sure Monokuma only showed us this because he knew you’re our biggest hope of leaving this place.” 

Dick relaxes a little, and gets up, pulling the flash drive out, “Why… why are you comforting me of all people? 

“Because I disagree completely with Akechi,” she informs him, “Killing game or not, with how many of us there are left, my best chance of survival is no longer staying out of everyone’s way but instead staying close to the person that has managed to solve each case while staying alive for this long.” 

“And the only other person who fits that description is currently your least favourite person here, right?” Naegi guesses. 

Pamela sighs, “…he will be lucky if he never sees me again once we leave this place.” 

* * *

After recovering fully from the video, Dick searches for Ryuji until he eventually comes by the conference room on the second floor, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I seriously didn’t expect to find you here.” 

Ryuji shakes his head, “I’m not gonna… just watching Ann and Gaige and well… you… it got to my head.” 

“I get that,” Dick pulls up a chair next to him, “But… we have to assume that it’s just something Monokuma completely made up. And to that end, I need your help.” 

Ryuji looks up, “Whaddya need me for?” 

“If we’re gonna solve the mystery behind this place and Monokuma’s identity, we’ll need to gather up all of the clues,” Dick informs him, “This place is probably the best area to do this… kinda wish we had a laptop ‘cause brining a whole computer here is gonna be a pain.” 

“Huh? Wait, didn’t you hear?” Ryuji asks him expectantly, and given Dicks confusion, he explains, “Togami found a laptop this morning in the library. He said it wasn’t there before, but when he asked Monokuma about it, he didn’t know anything either.” 

Dick stands up and walks back to the door, “Right… uh, then you get the books we found in that secret room behind the bar, I’ll go check out this laptop and I’ll bring everything from the computer room.” 

“Wh-what?! Why do I gotta do the heavy lifting?!” Ryuji objects, but by then, Dick has already run out of the room. 

Dick almost runs into Togami when he runs to the library, “I was hoping I’d run into you. Ryuji mentioned you found a laptop earlier, is that true?” 

Togami points to the table, “I placed it there after I found it hidden in between some books. So far I’ve questioned everyone but you about it, and no one, including Monokuma, seemed to be aware that this even existed. Care to explain?” 

Dick rubs the back of his neck, “Honestly I don’t know what this is about either but… wait, wasn’t Gaige the Ultimate Engineer?” 

“You think she was capable of building a laptop without Monokuma noticing?” Togami raises an eyebrow, “I suppose that would explain why it was hidden in the bookcase.” 

Dick nods, “Babs discovered right at the beginning that a camera in here doesn’t work, so there’s a blind spot. Gaige must’ve figured it out too. Besides, there’s already computers here, and she managed to build a death robot out of scrap metal, a laptop would’ve been a piece of cake for her.” 

“What would be the point?” Togami asks, “There are already computers on the second floor.” 

“All of them provided by Monokuma,” Dick adds, “At least this is portable, and unless Monokuma was lying about this as well, it’s also not tainted by him. We can use this to analyse that video we found.” 

 **_*Ding_ ** **_dong,bing_ ** **_bong*_ **  

Dick and Togami turn their attention to the nearest monitor as soon as they hear the bells coming through the intercom. Monokuma appears on the screen with a cocktail in hand, “Attention! Attention! This is a hotel announcement! Will all guests please make their way over to the lobby at once! Anyone who does not arrive on time will be reprimanded!” 

The screen turns to black, and Dick hears Togami sigh by his side, “I suppose it’s best we head over there at once. I dread to think what that bear may have in store for those who are late.” 

* * *

“We’re all here Monokuma,” Naegi announces when the last person to arrive, Akechi, walks into the lobby, “you might as well give us your motive now.” 

“So impatient!” Monokuma says and jumps onto the reception desk of the hotel lobby, “But you got it right! I’m here to give ya another motive!” 

Kiryuuin closes her eyes, “It’s quite foolish for you to think any one of us would kill, none of us will fall for your motive, no matter how tempting it may be.” 

“Upupupupu, we’ll see about that!” Monokuma pulls out a few envelopes, and throws them at the group, “I’ve gotten sooo tired of watching you kill each other, hide the evidence, only to have Dick and Akechi solve the mystery,” he growls, but neither Dick nor Akechi reply, and the bear clears his throat, “Each envelope has a specific person, place and murder weapon! Think of it like reverse Cluedo! Instead of finding the killer, you getta be the killer who finds their victim! Oh, and it goes without saying that ya should probably get rid of your envelope once ya do someone in!” 

Ryuji picks up the envelope with his name on it and pulls out the paper inside, “How is this a motive? Just cos you’re makin' the game easier doesn’t mean we’re gonna participate in it!” 

Monokuma laughs again, “I never said that was the motive! That’s just somethin’ to help all of ya! Now as for the motive…” he jumps to his feet, twirls around and points to the group, “if you kill someone and get away with it, I’ll bring someone from this killing game back to life, and they'll leave the hotel with you!” 

Tiny Tina vigorously shakes her head, “uh-uh, no way ya got those kindsa powers! You can’t really bring the dead back to life!” 

“True, they may be a little disoriented after bein’ on the other side and all…” Monokuma puts a paw on his chin, “but I tooootally can! But this offer won’t be on the table very long! If no one dies within the next week… well I’ll just hafta kill you all! Or think up another motive, but hey you’ll never know how I’ll feel in a weeks’ time! I don’t even know how I’ll feel in the next five minutes! Au revoir!” 

Monokuma backflips behind the reception desk and disappears from sight once more. 

Akechi is the first to speak up, “If anyone will need me, I will be in my room,” he drops his envelope on the floor. 

“You ain’t gonna look at that?” Ryuji questions, but Akechi simply shrugs on his way out. 

“What’s the point? We’re never going to get out of here by killing each other, the video proved that much. Besides, Monokuma’s newest motive clearly didn’t take me into account. There… there isn’t anyone in this killing game that I would want to bring back.” 

* * *

 ** _*Ding_** ** _,_** ** _dong,_** **_bing_** ** _bong*_**  

“Good morning everyone! Get ready to greet another beauuuuuutiful day!” Monokuma announces though the monitor. 

By the time the morning announcement goes off the next day, Dick and Naegi are already in the conference room. While making coffee an hour before everyone else had woken up, Dick had met the other and left a note for anyone else who wanted to continue their investigation while the two worked upstairs. 

Dick sticks the pieces of paper that were previously hanging in the dinning hall to the wall of the conference room, next to the wall with a projector screen on it, “So, out of everyone here, who can we cross off the list?” 

“Gamagoori and Sanageyama,” Naegi says definitively, “Kiryuuin’s still clearly not fully recovered from their deaths… also, well I guess you could rule out Ryuji and me. We were completely out of it and Monokuma still kept taunting you guys, and there was always someone checking up on us making sure we were still alive according to you and the others. ” 

Dick contemplates this, but even he doesn’t deny it, “That’s true. I’d also like to go back to what Togami said. He claimed that we couldn’t rule out any of the blackened but… they all had a motive to kill the people they did, right?” 

“Other than Monika,” Naegi points out while crossing out his and Ryuji’s name, “Takamaki was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

Dick nods, “Right, but Akechi witnessed all of it. I’m sure if Monika were secretly the mastermind who wanted to start the killing game she would’ve used Monokuma to make sure he hadn’t seen the whole thing.” 

Naegi agrees with him, crossing out Monika’s, Roses and Gaige’s names off the list. He lingers on one of the names, “What about Barbara…? We… well, we don’t even know if she’s dead. She could really have left the killing game and set up everything to make it look like Monokuma targeted her.” 

Dick sighs, knowing that Naegi’s reasoning was just, “If… if that’s true, then I don’t think the Barbara here was the Barbara I knew. But… I wanna have faith… I don’t think it’s her. What about us?” He looks over the list of the names, the names of the remaining guests still on the list, “I’ve had some time to think about it, and I don’t know if that was a simulation or what, but everyone who was mentioned in that video was also mentioned in one of the magazines, the one about the morgue… and if the mastermind did show up at the end of the video, we can rule those people out as well, right?” Dick concludes. 

“Unless it was specifically intended to throw us off,” Naegi closes his eyes and rubs his temples, “I could really use Kirigiri’s help right now…” he mutters. 

“I think Grayson is right,” Togami says, walking in the room, “In most killing games, Monokuma has rarely given us false evidence, even if it led to us discovering who was really the mastermind. If this mastermind works the same way as Junko Enoshima did, then we should assume that the evidence provided to us was not given to misguide us.” 

“…alright, if that’s what you think,” Naegi crosses out even more names. 

 **Junko Enoshima** **Slade Wilson** ~~**Ann Takamaki**  ~~

 ~~ **Monika**~~ **~~Artemis Crock~~** ~~**Rose Wilson**~~  

 ~~ **Dick Grayson**~~ **Makoto Naegi** **Goro Akechi**  

 ~~ **Satsuki Kiryuuin**~~ **Barbara Gordon** ~~**Tiny Tina**~~  

 ~~ **Gaige** **Ira Gamagoori** **Ryuji Sakamoto**~~  

 **Pamela Isley** ~~**Uzu Sanageyama**~~ **Byakuya Togami**  

 **Harime** **Nui** **Handsome Jack** **Masayoshi Shido**  

 **Joker** **Lex Luthor**  

“That still leaves us with far too many names,” Togami says, “Is there any way we can narrow the list down further?” 

The room falls silent as the three try to determine another people to cross off the list. For ten minutes, no one says anything, until eventually, Dick suggests something else, “How about we stop thinking about who’s behind this, and how we got here?” 

* * *

For the next hour, the three of them read through every file, every scrap of paper and every note Dick had taken in terms of gathering evidence against Monokuma. When he finishes skimming through the book about him, Dick sighs and sets it down, “I have nothing,” his stomach growls loudly, “And I should’ve probably grabbed more for breakfast than just a coffee. Anybody else wanna join me?” 

Naegi shakes his head, “If you brought me some food then I’d be happy to stay here and look through these files?” 

Dick nods, and glances other to the other survivor of the first killing game, “Togami?” 

Togami lifts his glasses and rubs one of his eyes, “If you insist, I will take a break as well.” 

“I’m not…” Dick shakes his head, “You know what, never mind. This is as good an opportunity to uh, bond, I guess.” 

The two of them leave Naegi behind and walk downstairs. Although Dick didn’t usually have a problem initiating small talk, especially with people who appeared to be rich snobs like Togami, it was somehow difficult to start up a conversation with him. He couldn’t ask about the weather, they had been trapped inside with no windows to the outside world for at least two weeks by Dick’s estimate. He couldn’t ask how Togami was doing since the answer was bound to be negative given their circumstances, and he wasn’t sure if Togami would even tell him what he did in the outside world with how secretive he was being. 

Nevertheless, Dick tries the latter, deciding that it was bound to be better than awkward silence, “So… You already know that I was a cop in the outside world. What do you do?” 

“I am the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, I would expect a police officer such as yourself to have already figured it out,” Togami gives Dick exactly kind of reply he expected, but then he continues, “I’ll entertain you. I was the heir to the most influential corporation in the world. That is, until Junko Enoshima’s actions lead to the Tragedy.” 

“The Tragedy?” Dick repeats, “I think I heard Naegi mentioning it before but-,” 

“The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic event in all of history,” Togami interrupts him, “To put it simply, the entire world was overwhelmed with despair. To some extent I am quite fortunate that Enoshima wiped my memory of the event, but as I have been told, it was how the end of the world came about. However, after we defeated Junko Enohsima, we joined a group of survivors of our school called the Future Foundation which was formed to combat despair and rebuild the world… my division works to quell any Remnants of Despair.” 

They reach the kitchen, where Dick opens the fridge and looks over the ingredients. He decides to make an omelette for both himself and Naegi and starts taking out the necessary ingredients while Togami leans against a counter and watches him, arms folded. 

“How does a regular American cop become the Ultimate Acrobat?” Togami asks him. 

“I used to be part of a world-famous circus act called the flying Graysons,” Dick explains while pulling out a pan, “But after my parents died and I was adopted I… uh, well lets say I decided to go down a different career path. Wait,” he registers what Togami said, “How do you know I’m American?” 

“Your Japanese is very good, but I can still tell by your looks and slight accent that you are American,” Togami explains, but that just confuses Dick even more. 

“I’m speaking English right now… as are you… and you think I’m speaking Japanese?” He stops moving around the kitchen, and their conversation is interrupted when someone else walks in. 

Akechi, with dark circles under his eyes, quite clearly disheveled and missing his jacket, walks in holding an empty mug that clearly had coffee in it before. He walks over to the coffee maker and brews himself another cup, “If Monokuma needed us specifically for this killing game, he must’ve implemented some form of communication which allows us to speak in and hear the language we are most comfortable in,” he says monotonously. 

“You already figured that out?” Dick asks him. 

“As soon as I left my room, yes,” Akechi responds, “the same happens with the writing here, although at first, the plaques on our doors were in our respective languages. That is why I didn’t know your name or who you were when we first met, and yet now they are all written in Kanji from my point of view,” Akechi explains, “I suppose whatever they are using to make us able translate everything without realising it didn’t quite work on the writing yet.” 

Dick scratches his head, “Yeah, but then… how are they able to do that? A psychic would just translate everything immediately.” 

“A psychic?” Togami chuckles, “You do realise how ridiculous that sounds?” 

“Where I’m from, psychics aren’t actually that uncommon. I mean, Pamela’s basically one but only when it comes to plants. Though it doesn’t seem to work here,” Dick thinks aloud. 

Once his coffee is done, Akechi leaves the room without another word. 

“It’s not just me who thought Akechi was acting really weird, right?” Dick asks Togami once he’s sure Akechi couldn’t hear them. 

Togami merely shrugs, “Perhaps this is just another lie he’s plotting.” 

“Yeah... maybe…”

* * *

The day goes by uneventfully, as do the next five days. While Dick, Naegi, Togami and eventually Ryuji, Pamela, Kiryuuin and Tiny Tina had gathered up all of the clues and listed off everything that didn’t quite make sense in the setting they were in, they still couldn’t find any clues tying to one single suspect, or any explanation for what had been happening to them. 

Meanwhile, Akechi had barely left his room, only showing up to pour himself more coffee or to grab some bread which ended up essentially being his only meal of the day. 

On the fifth day after Monokuma’s announcement, Dick shows up to the dinning hall, where everyone had already been seated, carrying a plate of his own dinner, “So… how’s everyone holding up?” 

“Monokuma’s deadline is coming up soon,” Pamela says without directly replying to his question, “I would feel far more at ease if that were not looming over us.” 

Ryuji shakes his head, “No way is he gonna kill all of us, what would even be the point? There’s still like over half of us left.” 

Pamela sighs, “It’s pointless to try and understand a psychopath like Monokuma. If he decides that he wants to kill us all, he will.” 

Kiryuuin sips on her tea as usual, “Pamela, am I to understand that you have given up?” 

Pamela shakes her head, “When the time comes, I will fight Monokuma to the end, and with how things have been progressing, I believe that will happen sooner rather than later.” 

“How’s your investigation coming along?” Naegi asks Dick, who pulls up a chair next to him. 

Dick simply sighs, “Not great, don’t have many leads or even much of a gut feeling about who’s behind all of this,” he looks down the end of the table, where the other detective was sitting on his own, with some soup in front of him that had barely been touched, “uh, Akechi? Maybe you’ve got some hunches?” 

Akechi doesn’t look up from the book he was reading, “I have nothing of value to share. After all, I’m hardly a real detective.” 

Dick looks to Ryuji expectantly, who rolls his eyes, but nevertheless makes an effort, “Uh, you okay there? Weren’t you super hyped to help everyone out in the investigation before?” 

Akechi closes his book and stands up, “and you were foolish enough to believe that? We’re doomed here, and there is no real way for us to escape.” 

He leaves the room, and Dick quickly gets out of his chair, “I’ll go talk to him,” he runs after the detective and grabs him by the arm gently, “Follow me.” 

Dick shuts the door to his room, making sure none of the others could hear the two talk. He turns around and finds Akechi examining his almost empty wardrobe, “It’s quite interesting that we weren’t given many clothes beyond our regular attire… perhaps it was done to make the killing game that much har-,” Akechi ponders aloud but Dick cuts him off, getting straight to the point. 

“Cut the crap, I already know you aren’t even trying to look for a way out of here anymore. On top of that you’re barely even sustaining yourself. You only show up for dinner and even then, you barely eat. You can fake all you want but I know something’s wrong with you. 

Akechi pauses briefly, until he bursts into a loud, broken laughter, very different from the odd chuckle he’s heard from the young detective on occasion, “Isn’t there always something wrong with me?” 

“Akechi…” 

“And so what if there is something wrong with me?” He stops laughing, “It’s none of your fucking business. So maybe I’ve lost my appetite, but are you seriously going to drag me away and pretend like you give a shit? Do you even realise the situation we’re in? You’re better off abandoning me.” 

Akechi reaches for the door, but Dick gets in his way and leans back against it, “No.” 

Akechi blinks, “No? What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“It means no,” Dick turns the lock on his door, “It means, there’s only two ways for you to get out of here. Either you tell me what’s going on and we sort it out, or…” 

Akechi rolls his eyes, “Or I try to murder you right here right now after everyone saw me getting dragged in here by you. Clever, or it would be, but do you honestly expect a madman like myself to follow common sense?” 

Dick shakes his head, “You’re… you’re not a madman. Just because you’re a killer doesn’t mean that you’re crazy. You do follow common sense… hell, that’s partly why despite all of the lies and deception you’d make a great detective, but you lack any sense of self-preservation or self-worth. You say that you haven’t attempted to kill anyone because you’d get caught but… I think it’s because you genuinely don’t care whether you live or die in this hotel.” 

Akechi doesn’t answer his statement. Instead, he turns around and continues inspecting his room, voice returning to normal, “…you’ll need to leave here eventually to get food or drink.” 

Dick slides down the door until he’s sitting against it on the floor, “I had lunch, I can survive for a while. You on the other hand have barely been eating and I’m guessing you haven’t been sleeping much either with how much coffee you’ve been drinking. So, you going to tell me or what?” 

“Why do you even care, Grayson? Why do you care about the person who got your girlfriend killed?” 

“So, it’s about Barbara,” Dick guesses and looks down, “I… don’t blame you for what happened. I want to-,” 

“You should,” Akechi interrupts him, “I was the one who suggested she break the camera.” 

“That doesn’t mean-.” 

“I’m the one who chose to play victim while she did the dirty work,” Akechi’s voice gets increasingly louder, as his tone grows angrier. 

“She knew what-.” 

“She trusted me, and I fucked it up! I could’ve prevented all those deaths but instead it’s my fault Barbara’s dead!” He shouts, “And for what?! Nothing! Absolutely fuck all! We’re not even close to solving this mystery and we’re still trapped in this fucking hotel with no clues!” 

“Akechi!” Dick stands up, “It’s not your fault!” 

Akechi picks up the vase on Dick’s dresser and throws it at him. Dick dodges it easily and it hits the door behind him. Instead of shattering like they expected it to, the vase falls to the ground and rolls back towards Akechi. Neither of them pays particular attention to it, “Don’t you realise?! I’m the one who got Barbara killed! She was even trying to protect me and what did I do?! Nothing! I didn’t do a goddamn thing! And now you’re saying it’s not my fault?!” He finds the nearest object in his vicinity that he could throw, this time a simple box of tissues and lobs it at Dick, who once more dodges it, “Fight back!” 

“No!” 

“Am I not even worth fighting? Is that it?!” He grabs the next object, a book, and throws that as well. 

This time, Dick catches it, sets it down and strides over to Akechi. The younger detective tries to punch him, but instead, Dick catches his fist, spins him around and pins him against the wall. Instead of shouting at him or hurting him further, Dick holds him in place without applying any more pressure than necessary to keep him from escaping. With this proximity, Dick only now notices the tears forming in Akechi's eyes.

He keeps his voice calm and steady, “Babs was a genius. She knew exactly what she was getting into. Even if you hadn’t suggested it, she would’ve done so herself. She could never let someone younger and less experienced do something so risky and dangerous.” 

* * *

 _Babs smiles a little, “But in all seriousness, even though you were withholding some crucial information, you did help us in the investigation and trial… so, I’d like to ask you to help me with a little something that I’ve been working on. You in?”_  

 _“Will it get me in trouble?”_  

 _“Probably.”_  

 _“Very well, I suppose there's little reason for me to deny your request in these circumstances. Tell me, what are you planning?”_  

 _“I guess I should start with this,” she pulls out her e-handbook and with a few clicks she shows him her true title, “In truth reality, I’m not the Ultimate Librarian.”_  

 _“And you trust me with this information?” Akechi raises an ey_ e _brow, “You must be hiding it from everyone, including your boyfriend, for a good reason, no? Then why tell me?”_  

 _Babs sighs, “Well… I hardly like using these_ _methods but_ _… earlier in the lobby I may have stolen your own e-handbook. I_ _… I needed a handbook that wasn’t my own, but then I saw your title,_ _your_ _real title, and put it back in your pocket,” Babs looks down, “Of course, if you’re the Ultimate Liar, I’m guessing there’s already one pretty big thing you’ve lied about already, huh?”_  

 _“I see,” Akechi nods slowly, “_ _If I don’t co-operate with you, then you will out me as a criminal,” he chuckles, “Oh how the tables have turned. Very well, I won’t tell anyone about your secret. However… I still don’t understand why you showed me your title.”_  

 _Babs begins explaining her hypothesis, “Well, Monokuma’s an animatronic bear who sees everything and appears out of nowhere. There’s no way that in a place like this there isn’t a computer around here somewhere connected to whatever system he’s using_ _… I think he gave me the title of Ultimate Hacker less as a_ _distinction_ _, and more as a warning.”_  

 _Akechi slowly pieces it together, “Once we find such a computer, you expect him to monitor you closely so that you don’t discover all of his secrets… well, I suppose one way to avoid that would be to damage the nearest camera in the vicinity.”_  

 _“That’s breaking the rules…” Barbara mutters, “We’d need to distract Monokuma.”_  

 _“I can provide the distraction while you break the cameras… of course we would need something compelling enough to get Monokuma’s attention but nothing so obvious that he would catch onto us,” Akechi think out loud._  

 _Barbara furrows her eyebrows, “Yeah… but… I don’t want you to get in trouble with him._ _We’ve gotta make sure that whatever reason we give him, it doesn’t result in a punishment._ _”_  

 _Akechi chuckles, “You have no need to worry about that. If it comes to it, I’ll make sure that I am the one to blame.”_  

 _“No,” Barbara refuses, “_ _I won’t let you endanger yourself to that extent on my behalf.”_  

* * *

“Even when you tried to place the blame on yourself, she wouldn’t let you,” Akechi struggles against him, but Dick holds him tightly in place and keeps talking, “I couldn’t blame you for any of that…. At least not until you had given up on everything.” 

“H-huh?” Akechi stops moving around, but Dick still doesn’t let him go. 

“You and I both know that Babs would’ve hated for us to give up so easily… that’s why… when Ryuji motivated all of us, I knew I couldn’t just succumb to despair and give up. I had to fight, I had to investigate… you had that same feeling when Monokuma first trapped Babs, right?”

* * *

 _Dick is surprised when he not only finds Togami sitting furthest away from the door, but Akechi standing nearest to it, “What’s going on?”_  

 _Togami sighs, “not another one… I’ll tell you what I told him. I only informed Gordon of the events of the previous killing games. As a matter of fact, Akechi was in the library when I shared that information and should’ve remembered.”_  

 _Akechi scribbles down something, and when Dick looks over his shoulder out of curiosity, it’s all profanities aimed at the affluent progeny, “I didn’t ask you to repeat that. I asked if there was anything else you had told her. This is all information that could help determine what exactly she knew.”_  

* * *

“You were trying to figure out what she did, find a way out of here…” Dick determines, but Akechi remains silent, “That’s… it’s why you can barely live with yourself now,” 

“…if I had saved her, saved everyone here… then perhaps it would begin to make up for all that I have done… for everything I plan to do once I leave this place,” Akechi whispers, for once speaking the truth, “Barbara… she was a good person. She didn’t deserve to die. No one in this killing game deserves to die.” 

Dick lets go of him, and Akechi slumps to the ground, leaning against the dresser, “I know, and that’s why from tomorrow you’re helping me investigate this place, just like you’ve helped me with past investigations. What do you say?” 

Akechi doesn’t reply. 

“Fine, get some rest and think on it. You’ve got till tomorrow morning, alright?” 

Akechi nods slowly, “If… if it would be alright with you… I may need some time to recuperate.” 

Dick gives him an encouraging smile, “Take as much time as you need… although I’m not gonna lie, I am pretty tired,” he glances over to the clock on the wall. He still had an hour till night time had officially started. 

“My room is unlocked. Feel free to use it,” Akechi offers. 

Dick thinks it over, “Actually… since everyone thinks I’m in here anyway, I’ll try out the VIP room… maybe I’ll get inspired or something. Want me to lock this room?” 

Akechi nods, “I… would appreciate that, yes.” 

* * *

The next day, Dick stirs awake in the VIP room and glances over to the clock on the wall. Realising he had already missed the morning announcement by half an hour, he jumps out of bed without even thinking to grab his jumper or looking for his other belongings in case the others were already looking for him. 

He runs out and almost hits Ryuji on the way, “Oh shi-!” He exclaims, “you scared me a little Ryuji. Sorry, I didn’t know you’d be here…” 

Ryuji smiles widely and waves his hand, “Nah don’t worry ‘bout it, I was looking for someone else actually. Since you’re in here, I was wonderin’… why is your room locked?” 

Dick suddenly recalls the events from last night and runs past Ryuji, “Oh no, it’s Akechi, I locked him in my roo-,” Ryuji grabs and stops him from running any further. 

“Kaaay, then that explains where he is, but there’s still two people missin’. Tiny Tina and Pamela didn’t come down for breakfast. Can’t say it’s that out of the ordinary for them to be late but…” 

“Pamela used to go to the garden all the time, right?” Dick points out, “we should probably look for her there.” 

Ryuji lets go of his arm, and Dick leads down him down to the garden. Remembering this time to open the doors out, Dick grabs the handle and pulls on the door. 

Inside, the plants and dirt are everywhere, with Tiny Tina standing right by the door, “I-I didn’t…. I didn’t do it!” she shouts. 

“Do what?!” Ryuji shouts, but Dick already knows the answer. 

He could make out someone’s bare feet coming out from behind some bushes. He walks ahead, and soon enough finds the person connected to those feet. 

Pamela Isley lay dead in the bushes in the garden, with a gun in hand and a bullet in her head


End file.
